liberty

My friend Brad got married and the clog in my throat was bigger than I expected. He was a particular sort of friend to me so I get all choked up when I think of him getting married to such a spectacular girl and all the joy in store for him. If I could, I think I would give everyone I know and love, the thing their heart desires. Perhaps that's why its so difficult to understand the biblical concept that God gives people what is best for them and what is best is not always happy. This concept is no less difficult to understand in myself than when I helplessly observe it in others.

I am a problem-solver. My friend just renamed her blog - describing how she no longer wanders but follows. When confronted by non-happiness and the frustrating inability to solve, I am forced to follow and find by hap stance that I no longer wander. When confronted by overwhelming joy, such as that when watching Brad marry, I willingly follow and cease to wander. Isn't is amazing that in both cases, God is at work to bring me to Him?

There are veins of religious thought which are in essence humanism veiled in theological terms. The over arching goal is the happiness of man and God is the means. One preacher said that the only difference between secularism and modern Christianity is that one focuses on the happiness of man while living and the other focuses on the happiness of man after he dies. Both are betrayals of the truth. Humanism is at direct odds with the ultimate goal of the Glory of God (which at times includes happiness and at times does not).

Where am I going with all of this? The happiness I found over the weekend of visiting old friends and attending a wedding may contrast with the unhappiness I find in my current situation but pondering that leaves me no where. Dwelling on happiness or dwelling on sadness, leaves me with humanism instead of Christianity. When I turn my eyes from the horizontal to the vertical, and stop asking God simply to make me happy and start asking how I can bring Him Glory then I no longer betray the truth; I become liberated by it.