Carried Along

As we speak, I am standing at my front door observing a summer storm. The clouds are rolling in, explaining why my back hurt today, the thunder is clapping, and the rain drops are getting bigger, slapping the ground like a toddler’s flat feet. It brings me such peace. Yes, there is the possibility the it could bring hail or contain high winds or a tornado even, but it brings me peace none the same, the feeling that I can do absolutely nothing to change what is about to happen, just take shelter. 

To me, a storm speaks to the character of God. He calls us and moves as he pleases through this broken and confusing world.  And while Romans 8 assures us that “ . . . all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (8:28), he rarely acts in accordance with our finite expectations. We strive for worldly accolades while he allows us to fail and struggle as he brings us to a place of reliance on him. We scramble to keep our children safe at all costs while he allows them to suffer and grow in their faith (2 Peter 1:5-7). We pray for our friend to come to know Jesus while he calls our enemies. In truth, as we live out our years on this Earth, we learn more and more that what Isaiah writes is true:For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). 

And why would we want it to be any different? What kind of God would do what we expect when we expect it?  What kind of God would be easy to understand and explain?  Not ours.  Therefore, Paul tells the Romans, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (11:33). Now, don’t get me wrong.  I want a predictable life: a life I can control, full of anything but surprises.  But I don’t want a God like that. I want the God who is assembling “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and people and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands” (Revelation 7:9). 

In a world of uncertainty, it is certainly understandable that many of us want predictability.  And God gives us that.  He is always with us, strengthening us until the day of salvation.  Phenomena like a summer storm, however, remind us that while God is there for us in our weaknesses, he is always doing “more than we could ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20), bringing together a kingdom only he can with a power we cannot contain.