“For my thoughts are not
your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my
thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah
55:8-9)
It’s said that parents spend
the first part of a child’s live in eager anticipation of the baby walking and
talking, and the next twenty years wishing they would stop getting in the way,
getting into things and just sit down and shut up. They find themselves frustrated as parents
as they try to explain what is obvious to them but their children respond to as
if the parents were speaking a foreign language. And it’s no better for the kid
who are encouraged to crawl, walk, or talk to take whatever catches their eye,
and then spend the rest of their lives being told not to touch, to sit down,
and to shut up. And when we start discussing pets, that leads us to a whole new
level of frustrations for all concerned.
It's only reasonable, then,
that when it comes to the relationship between God and us, there will be
frustration and I’m going to suggest that there is frustration on both sides. But
the issue here is that there are two meanings of frustration. The first is the
state of being prevented or stopped. The second is a feeling of irritation or dissatisfaction
with the situation. When writing about God being frustrated, it is in the second
sense. Consider the number of times Jesus scolded people for their “little
faith.”
The other issue is that when
we get frustrated in the second sense, we tend to lash out at others. We get
cranky. We may even lose control. God doesn’t do that. Even the discipline that
He gives us is designed for our long-term benefit. This sort of frustration on God’s part brings
about statements like today’s passage. “…my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways.” We don’t think like God or act like God. It’s silly to pretend that we’re on the same
level with Him. Even when He stoops to a level we might comprehend a little, it’s
still silly to pretend that we’re even near the same level with Him.
As frustrating as it is, it
is also comforting in two senses. The first comfort is the sigh of relief because
we can trust that things will eventually turn out well. And based on that assurance, we can be com-forted
(with-strength-ed) to go on.
This means that the very
source of our frustration is our source of comfort.
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