God Can Handle It

There are different situations (or seasons) where I get frustrated with my life...and then turn that emotion toward God. Somehow, God gets the brunt of all my intense emotions. I think I expect God to part The Red Sea or drop down some manna the very moment I demand it...as if He is on my timetable instead of vice versa.

I have always told people that God is big enough to take any emotion that we have, so we might as well share it all with Him. Knowing that He is gracious and compassionate, God's Presence is a safe place to be just who we are--even on the days when who we are is twisted and ugly. God can handle it. God can handle us.

Searching the internet last night, I came across a quote along these lines, discussing the Desert Fathers and their understanding of God's being able to handle whatever we throw at Him. The Desert Fathers are men who would go off in isolation for prolonged periods of time (sometimes years) to seek God and understand Him more fully. Most often, they would go to the desert (hence their name). Sometimes they would go to a cave or some other small, unadorned place. One of them even lived on top of a pole with a small platform (think David Blane in a clear box suspended above a city...but smaller space and no city...and for the purpose of seeking God rather than sensation). Anyway, in their dedication and sacrifice, the Desert Fathers discovered deep and beautiful truths about who God is and what He wants from us. So, I will share this quote that summarizes their thoughts about God being able to handle whatever we bringHis way:

“DECLARE IT ALL” was the advice of the desert fathers, those radical early Christians who took with great seriousness Jesus’ challenge to transform the heart. Declare it all — every thought, every feeling, every cruel intention, every ignoble desire and holy aspiration. Don’t be afraid to present anything to God as it comes into awareness, because you are beheld by a comprehending, compassionate love that knows how to heal your distempers. Everything becomes grist for the mill in spiritual growth, even the hells into which we wander. Some elements will be strengthened, some diminished, but grace can work with it all.
~Robert Corin Morris
Provocative Grace: The Challenge in Jesus’ Words

I love the line "you are beheld by a comprehending, compassionate love that knows how to heal your distempers". We all have "distempers" and are each in desperate need of healing and hope. God is in the constant process of transforming us, making us more Christ-like, converting us from searching, fragmented people into whole, found people. This leads me to another quote which has spoken to me lately:

CONVERSION is going on all the time within us and within the world…While the change of turning toward God may seem like a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it is in reality a continual process. We may think that we have turned fully toward God; then we discover another dimension of God, and we know immediately that more conversion is possible and necessary if we are to move Godward in all of life.
~Rueben P. Job
A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God

My prayer for each of us is that we would be honest with God, presenting all of who we are at His feet. When we open ourselves up to God, being vulnerable, real, authentic...that is when we find transformation and the ability to "move Godward in all of life". Let's move Godward today.