Does God Do Things for Us? Do We Do Things for God?
Posted in Chatter
(Preview: August Chatter Letter from the Editor)
The only concept more depressing than, say, a Gluten-Free Cookie Monster, is the idea that we’re alone. God may be very much alive, very good, very powerful, but he isn’t very much involved. Why would he do something for me when children are dying of typhoid fever in Sudan?
The other idea that forces me to extraneous Oreos (full-on gluten) is the idea that the central drama of our life is about doing things for God. He is a very living, very good, very powerful God and he deserves our lives. I know lots of people operating under this. It takes on different pseudonyms: involved citizen, hands-on mother, up-and-coming law partner, generous patron, conscientious neighbor, supportive sister, attentive husband, great dad, faithful English teacher. Whew. Those labels, by themselves, seem bleak.
Does God do things for us? Do we do things for God? These two questions are knit together like a reversible jacket. The answer to the first means everything for the second.
So, Does God do things for us?
Some people think it’s prideful to assume God cares about the details of my comfortable American life. This sounds reasonable, democratic. Why should God care about my job loss when in the Philippines this very morning, a mother is selling her daughter to buy food for her younger children? God has a lot going on in this world. He has bigger fish to fry. But here’s what (maybe? possibly?) lies beneath: we feel God has a lot to answer for in the stadiums-full of suffering, starving, maimed and raped people that cry out to him on a given day. God isn’t behaving in the way I would prefer on the big stuff so why should I expect him in my little stuff?
We say, Let me show you how it’s done, God.
I will be a good citizen. A wonderful mother. A faithful friend. Somebody’s got to do it. And, come to think of it, I don’t really want your help, God, with my job loss, my parking space, my marital spat, until you answer for the real suffering I see around me.
Which, if you think about it, is weird. But we behave in weird ways all the time. Just ask my therapist.
So, if the answer to the first question “Does God do things for us?” is NO, doesn’t it mean the answer to the second question is: YES? We do things for God. Because he obviously needs someone to set him a good example.
But what if the answer to the first question is YES? What if God IS involved in the small things of life?
What if God was working when, last week, I was feeling down about my abilities in all things mothering/faith/writing, just thrashing my inner form with an imaginary meat tenderizer, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, my three-year-old busts out with “Jesus Loves Me?” Drew had never sung this song before, much less an entire song from start to finish. And there he was on perfect pitch, singing his little heart out, making all the Rs sound like Ws. It cut through my layers of blood and bone and yanked that tenderizer right out of my hands. Coincidence? I don’t think so. I believe in that moment God was whispering a little sweetness to me: Jesus loves you, this you know, for the Bible tells you so.
I don’t know about genocide. About famine. War. Hurricanes. Recessions. All I know is, God DOES do things for me, and I must trust him with the rest.
He does so much for little old me, and he doesn’t need anything I can do for him.
Whew.
Julie
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Hey now, I can make a pretty mean gluten free chocolate chip cookie!
You’re right–His love and kindness toward us inspires our love and kindness toward others.
Thanks Becky!