Why is it that God’s way of doing things differs so often from my own? I certainly wouldn’t have chosen to send a messenger dressed in his underwear to deliver a key message about the nation’s future. But God did.
I’m not sure I would have endorsed the plan to march around the walls of a hostile city for an entire week and then trust trumpets and shouts to bring the walls down. But God did.
I find the same is true in our church life: what works most effectively is often not what my common sense would have chosen. In our congregation, for instance, we don’t pass an offering plate, I share authority with a co-pastor, we’ve eliminated our membership program, and we’ve stopped holding a Sunday evening service. None of these things makes sense, from my point of view, but they seem to be God’s will-and they fit our congregation.
I remember resisting many of these when the suggestions were first offered, but now I’m ever so grateful that we made the difficult choices to follow God’s leading. What didn’t fit my expectations at the beginning has always surpassed them in the end.
Disagree with God? How dare you!
Whenever I admit I disagree with God, I invariably get that down-the-nose look of judgment. People seem to think that having a difference of opinion with the Almighty is an act of rebellion.
I beg to differ. I think people who never find themselves in disagreement with God aren’t listening closely enough. It is not wrong to disagree with God; it is only wrong to disobey him.
Disagreement can lead to sinful rebellion-as it did with the twelve spies in Canaan, with Job’s misjudging God’s fairness, and with Jonah’s taking the long route to Nineveh. But disagreement doesn’t have to lead there.
At first, Samuel didn’t think David could be God’s choice as king. I doubt Joseph would have endorsed the initial direction his career path took. Even Jesus asked if there weren’t another way to redeem us except by the cross. In these cases, the questions and disagreement didn’t lead to rebellion, only to a deeper level of submission.
We desperately need to recognize that our natural tendency is to disagree with God. After all, doesn’t his wisdom surpass ours? God put it this way, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8). He sees every possibility. He knows every detail. Why shouldn’t such knowledge lead him to far different conclusions than my meager mind will muster?
But what we know so comfortably as a bedrock theological presupposition easily escapes when we run off with our latest idea, certain that God sees it the same way we do. How deadly such an assumption can be! That’s why I’m surprised whenever I find people who’ve never thought that their best ideas might disagree with God’s. I can’t help but wonder if mine ever do.
The story of our church’s decision to cancel the Sunday evening service will illustrate.
Our experience of divine disagreement
When I first came to Our Savior’s Community, we had a regular Sunday evening service. I liked that, since I had attended such services all my life. But every time I prepared for it, something didn’t feel right. The nagging thought kept coming back: Why not cancel Sunday evening services to open up greater opportunities for personal fellowship in more natural settings?
I fought the notion every way I knew. Wouldn’t people expect evening services? Isn’t that where many people unsatisfied in their present congregations start sampling others? But looking back, I know I was motivated more by a personal guilt that couldn’t relax on a Sunday evening without going to church.
When I discussed it with our leadership team, some were strongly in favor of abandoning it while others wanted to keep it. But, as in all our decisions, we were determined to arrive at a decision together. Through continued prayer and discussion, we finally concluded that God was asking us to give it up at least for the time being. We canceled our Sunday evening service and have seen that time used greatly to rest and restore families as well as to enhance fellowship. We’ve also used the time occasionally to offer classes in specific areas of Christian growth and ministry. All my fears about not having a Sunday evening service proved groundless.
What a marvelous vantage point God holds! He sees the end from the beginning, while we are fearful of the horrifying possibilities that might occur.
I got another glimpse of that truth one Sunday afternoon trying to watch a golf tournament. I had taped it on my VCR because it started during our morning service. When I got home, well after the time it was supposed to have concluded, I turned on the TV to make sure it was over. The set came on just as they were showing the final leader board. I turned it off quickly but couldn’t help noticing one of my favorites was at the top. I was disappointed, because I enjoy watching tournaments much more if I don’t know the outcome.
When I rewound the tape, however, my favorite’s name didn’t even appear on the leader board. Someone else was far ahead and looked uncatchable. As I continued watching, however, the leader faltered. Then my favorite started picking up some birdies, but it still looked impossible. Perhaps my fleeting glimpse of the final board had been in error.
Finally on the last hole, with a birdie/bogey combination, the two had drawn even. After a few holes of sudden death, my favorite finally won. I had seen the end from the beginning, and if I had just believed that, I wouldn’t have gotten so anxious when he drove into the rough off the first tee of sudden death, or when his competitor needed only a three-foot putt to win that hole.
Because God sees the end from the beginning, he knows the result of every action our congregation will or won’t take. I’m learning to trust him there, because I’ve seen too often how the things I’ve tried, certain the outcome would be good, wind up having the opposite effect I intended.
That’s why I think we all should admit our disagreements with God. We all have them. Recognizing how far his wisdom exceeds ours puts us in a better place to follow him.
-Wayne Jacobsen
Our Savior’s Community
Visalia, California
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