November 07, 2012
God is Just
I recently attended a
funeral where the speaker described the deceased as a believer and assured the
audience that one day we would see our loved one in heaven. Personally I’d
never seen the deceased display any characteristics that would identify her as
a believer, but by the same token I can also say I’d never actually heard her
reject Jesus. No doubt the speaker’s intentions were to give the family encouragement,
but I have to wonder if he may instead, have been giving them false hope. Rather
than assuring people that their loved one is in heaven it would be better to
tell them that God is a just God. “And I
heard the altar respond: “Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your
judgments.” (Rev 16:7 NIV)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Everybody lies, psychologists assure us. We don’t have to search far to see how they are right. Being a guy, I know when my wife seeks a compliment by asking if I liked dinner from when she wants some honest feedback. This morning I heard John Boehner proclaim in a whiny beseeching tone of voice that Obama’s re-election was not a referendum for raising tax rates. If he believed what he was saying he would not have whined out a begging statement. Sometimes we think hope is more important than the truth. So we state the hope and scuttle the truth. Then we wet our pants when the truth overtakes us, ripping hope into despair and such. Falsehood, in fact, has its way with humanity more than does truth. And so the beast slowly rises from the sea.
-----”Good grief, Steve! It’s just a euphemism at a funeral!” Yet, in its naiveté another hair or scale of the beast emerges. Belief is a funny thing. You can lay out a full and complete set of facts ordered neatly and surely into a logical structure leading to the one conclusion with certainty, and regardless, it will be believed or disbelieved only according to will. It is what Jesus meant by eyes to see and ears to hear.
-----So we bear a responsibility for at least a small part of the condition of our neighbor’s eyesight and hearing. We are social beings. By the principle of social psychology called the “looking glass theory,” we measure our own appropriateness according to the way folks around us respond to our actions and communications and choices. When we are saddened and looking for consolation and are fed a plate of bias for placation, we perceive an appropriateness towards bias. But when palatability is laced into the truth as much as is possible without turning the truth into either ambiguity or a lie, then the looking glass reflects back to the looker a necessity for adjusting personal bias to make way for truth’s undeniability. It becomes a call for humility.
-----For too long, now, we have reflected a “that’s ok, don’t worry, be happy” message to the troubles of others. In turn, the thinking of others has not dug deep for truths buried far under the surface of their disastrous affairs. Consequently, little social lies told over the course of generations have accumulated in the public eye like cataracts and have stuck dirty fingers in its ears.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Post a Comment