"You Can't Always Get What You Want"?

I love the rolling stones, especially "You Can't Always Get What You Want."  I love the melancholy groove that leads into the upbeat "you-get-what-you-need" chorus. One of the things I've always liked is that the message of the song teaches that life isn't always roses and bubble gum but that it's ok anyway. It is the anthem of contentment.  However, lately I've been questioning that belief.


I've always had a problem with "health and wealth" Christianity. These are the Christians that only talk about God's blessings in the form of nice cars and fancy watches while they ignore biblical passages like "blessed are you when men revile you" (Matthew 5:11-12) or "count it all joy when you endure various trials and tribulations" (James 1:2-3). Sometimes they accuse you of not having enough faith if you lose your job or get sick. (Confession: I have thought about punching these guys in the face and blaming them for not having enough faith that I wouldn't punch them.) I've often wondered what these guys would say to the people of God being tortured for Christ in Saudi Arabia or losing their human rights in China.


I still can't get on board with the overemphasis on blessing, but I have had to reevaluate my thinking lately. The truth is I'm really blessed. I have great friends and a great family, not to mention my warm house, comfortable clothes and reliable cars. Here is where it gets really crazy: I have been blessed to receive things I don't need but really wanted.  I remember wanting a drum set from the time I was old enough to remember.  I prayed and saved and practiced my rhythms on buckets and cans for years.  The desire never went away, and God eventually blessed me with a drum set.  


All this got me thinking about Psalm 37:4 when it says "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart."  I think a lot of health and wealth pastors have used this verse to infer that God is a cosmic vending machine.  "Show up with your desire, put in your tithe and get what you want."  A friend of mine who worked in a Christian bookstore during "The Prayer of Jabez" craze said a customer once told him that if you pray the Prayer of Jabez a certain number of times daily, you can get whatever you want.  This still bothers me. I don't like treating God like a sugar daddy.  Isn't He more important than all this stuff?  Isn't it ridiculous to have all this stuff when people are starving in other parts of the world? 


So, what's the difference?  How can I scorn blessing oriented theology when I have and enjoy God's blessings every day?  


I think the answer is in the order of the verse.  The psalmist never says "You will get the desires of your heart, if you do the Christian thing."  He says to delight in God.  Everything else is frosting.  This is where we miss it so many times.  God never meant for us to show up to church looking for a feeling.  He never wanted us to enter into relationship with Him for new cars and financial stability.  He just wants us to love Him.  It's that simple.  

My wife bought me a great Christmas present this year, something I have wanted but never thought we could or should afford.  She went to great lengths to pull extended family together to chip in, because she loves me and wanted to bless me.  She does something special like this every year.  One year it was a mandolin, another year it was a Marshall Amplifier.  She is amazing.  But, when I married her, I wasn't thinking about amps, drums and clothes.  I married her because I'm crazy in love with her.  If every gift she gave me burned tonight, I would wake up tomorrow thrilled that she was with me.  I delight in my wife.  The gifts only serve to remind me how much she loves me.


It gets better.  The more I know and love my wife, the more I want things that help me bless her.  I have grown to desire gifts that benefit our home.  I got pretty excited about a Rigid wet vac that I wanted to clean our sump pump.  My desires have shifted since becoming a husband and a father.  I am so in love with my family that I want things that help me serve and love them better.  


The same is true in my relationship with Christ.  The more I delight in Him, the more my desires mature into His desires.  How small a flat screen TV looks in the presence of the infinite God of creation.  Delight is an irresistible compulsion for the one who has encountered God.  


This is what makes me proud of so many people in our church.  There are days where babies cry and music doesn't come together well.  People who show up hoping for chills during worship lose interest.  Sometimes even I get distracted.  But there are faithful men and women of God who don't care.  They showed up to delight in God.  The video feed could go out.  The speakers could feedback. They wouldn't notice or care.  All they see is God.  They delight regardless of circumstances.  They can do it because they've been doing it all week.  They delight because of who God is.  They just love Him.  


As we enter into a New Year full of anticipation and hopes, I want to delight in God like never before.  His love is deeper than we can fathom.  His grace is more powerful than our most depraved thought.  He delights in us every moment of eternity.  I want to love Him like He loves me.  That's what I want this year to be about.  


My resolution is to delight in God.  How about you?  

If God is good...

If God is good, then why is there suffering in the world?  This might be the most controversial question in history.  We want to assume that if God is good, He would not allow us to experience pain.  Some argue that if we suffer, God must not have known it was going to happen.  Others argue that our suffering is all our fault, and that we shouldn't blame God for any of it.  Either way, the reality is that God could stop all the evil and suffering in the world if it was within His nature to do so.  He hasn't.  Does that make God less than good?  Does it make Him less than God?

Yesterday, I spoke on Psalm 77 at Open Door.  In my study of the passage, I was surprised to see the psalmist openly question God in the midst of his suffering.  He genuinely asks God: "Are you still loving?  Have you forgotten to be merciful?  Have you withheld your compassion?

We have a tendency to think that if God is good, He will keep us from suffering or that He will immediately remove us from it when we ask.  The truth is, God almost never takes me out of suffering when I ask. I have seen Him work miraculously and providentially when the situation doesn't affect my comfort.  He has answered my prayers many times when it had to do with ministry or someone else.  However, when I am experiencing tragedy or when I am watching tragedy happen, he often lets me endure it.

I have wrestled with this at times.  Recently, I have come to some comforting conclusions:

1. God doesn't mind us asking questions of him (Psalm 77:6-9).
2. God loves me and is powerful.  If God allows me to suffer, it is ultimately for my good and His glory (Romans 8:28-30)
3. My suffering is directly linked with my relationship to him.  Jesus suffered.  Being like Him means I will too.  I am closer to Him as a result of my suffering (Romans 8:16-18).  
4. God's goodness is not contingent on whether or not He frees me from suffering.  
5. The most encouraging thing I can do is to remember who God is by recalling what He has done (Psalm 77:10-20, Job 38-41).  

This is what we did yesterday in Church.  Instead of a closing song, we had testimonies.  We read posts from the Adventure Stories (testimonies) part of our website, and we listened to a few live testimonies.  It was an exciting time.  It is amazing how many miracles He has done, how many people He has saved, how many prayers He has answered.  We were able to put aside our trials, in some cases even forget our suffering as we reviewed the greatness of God.  How could we not trust a God who rose His Son from the dead?  

So, today what I wanted to do was give you the opportunity to share something (anything) God has done in your life.  It doesn't have to be "big," just something that He has done.  Go to the Adventure Stories section of the website and share your story.  While you're there, read a few from others.  

 If you would like to read more on this topic, I can also recommend The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis.  

Reprised by Joy

Recently I visited my family in my home town to find both it and them changed. The heroes of my life who held me up for so long are growing weak and breaking down. Grandpa (mom's dad) soldiers on though Parkinson's disease has all but immobilized him. He moves with a slow steady shuffle and struggles just to stand. Grandma (mom's mom) died several years ago. The things that he once looked forward to are now in his past. He looks now to the future of his grandchildren and great grandchildern rather than to his own. You can see it. He often looks at us with a knowing smile as if to say he's ready to go, glad to be leaving this place in good hands.

Memaw (Dad's mom) suffers from memory loss, and we all grieve as she loses the parts of herself that we still have, memories of her and her strength. It is strange to think now that in some ways we remember her better than she remembers herself. Perhaps that's how it is meant to be. I'm working harder to remember her now that she forgets.

Pepaw (Dad's dad) cares for her in a way we never would have seen had she never gotten sick. I wonder also if that's the way it was meant to be. The depth of his love for her would have remained unknown even to him without being tested. Now we all know. I'm glad for that.

As I see things change I have a strange grief. It is as if I can't bear the loss of how things once were. At the same time the thought of going back to that time would mean losing something now. I feel this strange ache in my chest for something I can't explain. It's like nostalgia but something different. I'm hungry for some shadow of the past cast by something great in the future...or perhaps outside time altogether. It is a hopeful hurt, a hunger that nothing in this world can fulfill.

C.S. Lewis calls this ache "joy". I think he is right to call it that. It is that momentary longing for something beyond this world, a longing that itself is greater than any other fulfillment in this world. According to Lewis, desire is evidence that the object of desire exists. In other words, if there is in me a longing for something that nothing in this world desires, then my heart must be longing for something outside of this world.

My heart comes back to this "Joy" again and again. It is the thing that makes this world seem like mere shadow, that makes the next one seem like the real thing. It often shows up in inexplicable heartaches that last for days. Though, at times I have felt it with great intensity, coming out of nowhere for a brief moment. I believe it is God working in my heart to make sure I love the next world more than I love this one. After all, that's my real home.

Maybe its the change in season, maybe its the nostalgic trip, maybe its the fact that I just buried one of my friends and heroes to day. This joy is calling me out of comfort, beckoning me to look more for the things of heaven than for the things of this earth. Its calling me to love God more, to love people more, to celebrate reconciliation and redemption.

Strange to think the things I want from this world aren't really of this world.

What are some things that make you long for heaven?