Daily Archives: November 23, 2009

“Sin wants the Father’s things but not the Father…”

I don’t know where this quote originates. I saw it on twitter, but we all know twitter can sometimes be a huge echo chamber. A friend says it sounds like “The Prodigal God”, but I’ve not yet read that book. All I know is that it is a true statement, a profound statement.

I’ve done a lot of thinking lately about expectations. More specifically about great expectations unmet.

I think of the lame man who I’m sure wanted to be healed by Jesus. What was he told? “Son, your sins are forgiven.” What did he think at those words? Jesus did, of course, heal him, but not until after He initiated a life-long debate of which is better and which requires more power. Is it easier to forgive sins or to heal the lame? Regardless of the answer, which do we seek? Do we want to be healed physically or healed spiritually?

This is just one small example. A greater example is Jesus Himself. He came as the illegitimate son of a young girl and her poor fiance. He was born in a barn or maybe a rugged cave, surrounded by animals and smelly shepherds. This was definitely not the entrance one would expect for the Savior of the world.

Then He goes on to disappoint by collecting a ragtag gang of followers, annoying the religious leaders and upsetting all of tradition with His revolutionary teaching. Finally, finally, the people get what they want when thirty-three years later He enters Jerusalem with a king’s promenade. Their Redeemer has come! That triumphal entry was supposed to lead to the overthrow of Rome and the healing of the nation of Israel. The people ached for physical, tangible relief. Hadn’t they waited long enough? And what did they get? A crucifixion.

They wanted the Father’s things … His peace, His healing, His salvation, His protection, His order.

But they didn’t want those things on God’s terms. They refused to see God as God, to recognize His plan as right. They wanted the end result of following God, but on their own terms and in their own timing.

So far I’ve looked back at people and events thousands of years past. But what about today? The Jews of the Bible are no different than us today. We still seek all the good of following God, but too often we seek His things and not Him. We dive into Scripture, not to know the Author, but to see how He can help us or what antidote He has for our current situation. We pray, begging for wisdom, but then only look in one direction because we already know the “right” answer.

I want to WANT the Father. I want to seek after Him and not just His things today. The awesome thing is that when we seek Him, He promises all those things will be added. He is a great and awesome god. We miss so much by grasping at the wrong things.

Tenth Avenue North has a song called “Beloved.” It’s an amazing song, but one line always catches in my throat: “You’ve been a mistress, my wife. You’re chasing lovers that won’t satisfy.”

What lovers are you chasing today?

I’m not a huge fan of music videos, but I love music and I want you to hear this song.

As a sidenote, if you don’t have the CD, you gotta get it. (CLICK HERE.) The whole album is tremendous. Beautiful, beautiful worship songs.