So let’s start by telling the truth: every single one of us has had moments in our lives of hurt, disappointment, failure, loss for which we only know to blame God. True or not we've all felt that way, especially in those moments when we were doing what we thought was our best. We don’t always blame God but when all other causes are excusable who is left?
It seems like much of this condition has to do our preconceptions about God. It's interesting that most of our preconceptions box God into roles in many ways unlike what we see in Jesus of Nazareth.
One of the boxes we use for the “blamed God” is puppeteer. We need help and we pray to God and we expect God to pull some strings for things to get better. We need to be cautious here because we risk defining away the very freedom that makes love possible and I’m pretty sure love is a thing God wants for us.
Popular culture has dealt with this question especially well in the film “Bruce Almighty,” where Bruce, played by comedian Jim Carey can move the moon but can’t compel his crush, played by Jennifer Anniston to love him.
Another box is that one I characterize as “Santa Claus having a bad day.” God is portrayed as always watching and keeping accounts of those who are “naughty or nice” and ordering just enough toys or sticks and coal for the Christmas giveaway or judgment day. The best corrective for this limited view of God is the entire book of Job, ‘nuff said.
Another box is one many use to make sense of those particularly puzzling times when we say things like “only God knows” or “everything happens for a reason.” Here it is worth it to dig a little and let stand the truth that the only trustworthy picture of God is the one revealed in Jesus and not in some hidden esoterica or Hellenized philosophy.
There are plenty of other boxes but the ones I've listed clearly indicate our struggle to live in a world of hurt and loss even while believing in God. Each of them, in an attempt to express one aspect of God’s character misses another. And each makes our forgiving God that much harder.
Letting Jesus be our best picture of God is a game changer for me. Born humbly to become a compassionate healer, faithful leader and courageous teacher, who died obediently so that our lives could have new meaning and purpose, kind of makes all the extra-biblical descriptions of God seem “clunky” at best and well off the mark.
In Jesus we see the God who saves us first by being with us and who clearly chooses love over control, forgiveness over revenge, presence over power, mercy over punishment. What’s to forgive? We should be sorry for thinking otherwise.
Admittedly, the hurt and loss of this life don't disappear. God is still with us, knows everything we know about disappointment, failure and loss then still forgives us and all our bad pictures of him.
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