Setting Father Against Son

Family relationships are always interesting.  Some are harmonious situations where each member lifts up the other.  Some are destructive environments which children can’t wait to escape.  Most are more complex, offering opportunities for positive relations as well as times of stress and confusion.  Whatever their make-up, family relationships become even more complex with the introduction of spiritual differences.

This morning my reading included Luke 12:52-53

From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.

My father-in-law once quoted this to me as one of his reasons for not believing in Jesus, or even God.  He recently quoted it again, this time to my husband, saying that he didn’t want to believe in any God that would do this to a family.  How odd is it to quote the very scripture that is fulfilled by your reason to quote it?  My father-in-law’s very lack of faith is what Jesus is telling his followers that they will face.

It makes me sad to consider that this man, who is brilliant and constantly researching Christianity in order to debunk it, will not make the effort to ask God himself to clarify the issue for him.  I tried once to ask him to do just that.  After all, if no one is there, it’s just a silly thing to do.  He has confidence enough in his mental/emotional state that he has no fear of deluding himself.  Why not just ask?  If nothing comes of it, he’s proven his point and can let it go.  He gave several reasons why he didn’t, shouldn’t, and wouldn’t.  Over the years, I’ve come to see that none of them are really true. 

I’ve also come to see that he really can’t let go of God completely, and I think that may be because God hasn’t given up on him completely.  My father-in-law is like a dog with a bone whenever he’s been tweaked about Christianity.  He fights and fights to try to prove his point.  He demands answers from us that only God himself can provide.  Even when you raise your hands and agree to disagree, he doesn’t stop.  Usually these exchanges are through email.  We will often receive a half a dozen emails after our last one of any substance.  The scripture reference above was in one of those.  It was at least the second email following my husband’s pretty clear message to the effect that “I can see you are firm.  I’ll let it go.”  It’s his father that won’t let it go.  And I have to wonder why.

Why does he continue to read, research, and attempt to debunk the faith?  Why spend so much energy on something you are so committed not to believe?  Why spend hours crafting position papers on a subject you have basically said is a waste of time?  Why commit emotional energy toward a topic that you say means nothing to you?

I’m coming from a position of faith.  I believe in the truth of the Bible.  I believe that there really was a person named Jesus who walked the earth and did and said the things the Bible says he did and said.  I also believe that he was both fully man and fully God.  I can’t claim to understand how that’s possible, but I believe it to be true.  In fact, I know it to be true because of the relationship I have with God. 

Speaking from that understanding, I know God loves my father-in-law.  I know that He has been wooing the man for a long time.  I also know that as my father-in-law approaches the fading years of his life, God wants to restore a relationship with him.  I believe that my father-in-law is sensing those efforts and fighting them tooth-and-nail.  As contrary as he can be on this subject, my father-in-law is still loved – by God and by my husband and by me – and we all want to see him have peace on this subject.  I hope and pray that God wins this tug-of-war.  I’d love to see my father-in-law really understand the extent to which God has gone to express His love and ensure their relationship.  I hope I can witness, on some level, that “aha” moment when he gets it and yields.  More than angels will sing praises!

A Difficult Gift

I number of years ago someone asked me why I thought there could be a “good” God when there were so many starving and abused children in the world. These were my thoughts at the time…

Whether it be starving children in Ethiopia or street kids in Guatemala, it is difficult for anyone to understand or make peace with suffering. Aren’t these children innocents? Why do they deserve these lives? Where is God anyway, and why doesn’t he do something about them?

Juggling Chain Saws

Yesterday, I watched an episode of Time Warp that showed a man juggling chain saws.  Now, I’ve never learned to juggle, so I really don’t know how hard or easy it could be, but it certainly does look dangerous!  The most interesting thing, though, was not the riskiness of dealing with chain saws, but

Whose Voice Do You Hear?

I was reading Dallas Willard’s “Hearing God” this morning.  He makes three main points about hearing from God and I kept going back to the first.  Basically, hearing from God first requires us to recognize His voice.  We must be in relationship with Him before we can hear, let alone understand, what He wants to say to us.  I continue to be struck with how very important this point is. 

Willard’s discussion reminded me of something I heard about shepherds and their flocks. 

To What End?

This semester I read a book by George Barna called “Revolution.”  His main premise is that Christianity is on the verge of a revolutionary change in the way we do “church.”  That change could bring our organized churches into crisis because the revolution that’s happening is bringing more and more people closer and closer to God which results in their becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the ways we are currently doing church.  On some level, he appears to advocate for the most spiritually aware of us to drop out of organized churches.  At least, he says our attendance will be dropping significantly.

I think that’s very sad – and, on some level, very wrong.  How do we meet God’s purposes that way?

[He] has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace…. (2 Timothy 1:9)