God is in the Details

There are times where I'm like "um, ok last month was a better God month."  He was doing stuff, I could see it, I could feel His presence on everything around me....He was on a ROLL!  Now, I think He's just more focused on other people.  I mean after all, He does have a  universe to run....and...I'm just one tiny person, at one particular moment in the history of this place.  I should just be grateful He visited me.  I can't expect Him to be blowing my mind 24/7...can I?

Well I think that depends on your mind....or rather, what you keep your mind on.

"The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You." 

Isaiah 26:3

First, I think we can all admit that there are times when (it seems) God does HUGE things in our lives, and other times where He's doing small things, or maybe nothing at all.  This week was the same as last week, maybe worse.  Just the same ol routine.  I'm getting worn out.

It happens, but we must not let our stinkin' thinkin' stink up the place.  Time to neutralize the infection with a truth antidote.  You with me?  Here's some of my favorites:

"[You]...are intimately acquainted with all my ways...in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, when there was not yet one of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand." Psalm 139:3,16-18 

I love that whole chapter.  It's David just going "oh WOW, how specific your attention is to ME oh God!" And he's like "I can't escape it, not that I would want to, but if I tried, where could I go that you are not there with me?"

See I think at the core of this issue is the fundamental problem we have as finite beings.  We evaluate the small part of what we actually see God doing, and then process that through our fallible, sinful, system of understanding that is naturally bent towards answering the question of "how does this benefit me?" (forgetting that me and this whole deal is for His glory, not mine).  And out the other side comes a conclusion as to whether what happened was "good" or "bad".

I work in software, and I love analogies.  When one of our systems is going through testing, we inevitably will receive back bug reports.  Sometimes these are obvious errors in the system, but other times the system performed as designed and the problem is that the user had different expectations of the system than what it was designed for.  So who's wrong?

See I see that as how we attempt to relate to God sometimes.  We so desperately want to see Him working in our lives that sometimes we only accept His workings if we can recognize them....if they fit our predetermined idea of what we are expecting Him to do.

I think God wants to shatter that idea.  I love how Romans 9:20-21 uses this analogy (told you I like analogies) of clay and the potter "The thing molded will not say to the molder, 'Why did you make me like this', will it?" We are all just pieces of clay, trying to tell other pieces of clay what the potter is like.

So let's remind our hearts of the truth He's given us, and take Him at His word.  That He does all things well, all the time, and for our ultimate good (as He defines good), even when I can't see it.  The road is hard, very hard, but He's promised to get the job done.

God is in the details, every one of them.

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." 

Romans 8:28