I mean, I'm impatient, but this is ridiculous.
I am not the world's most patient person.
I was ok reading the story in Acts 3 about Peter and John healing the crippled beggar at the temple gates. It was when I got to Acts 4:21&22 that my brain started reeling...
"After further threats they (the religious leaders) let them (Peter and John) go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened (the crippled beggar had been healed in the name of Jesus by Peter and John). For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old."
As I read this, I wonderd how many times during this man's 40+ years of life he had asked for healing? How many days had he struggled with understanding why he was crippled? How many years had he lamented being bound to the constant vulnerability (and, no doubt, embarrassment) of imploring the mercies of others to meet his basic needs for nourishment? How many moments were stolen trying to dissect why God seemed to be unresponsive to his pleas?
When, suddenly, on a day that seemed just like any other, after 40+ years, God chooses not only to offer healing, love and response to this man, but to use this healing to impact the course of history, display his glory, legitimize the ministry of Peter and John, increase the number of Christ followers to over 5,000, and shut the mouths of the religious leaders.
What looked for years upon years like rejection, humiliation, punishment and shame, in a days time was transformed into a conduit for glory, joy, rejoicing, mercy, love and incomparable power.
Here's what all this made me consider ...
1. God is good 2. God is ALWAYS about His glory
3. God loves me dearly, passionately, and wholly... And his value system is not mine.
God values His glory. I often value my well being. God values eternity. I often value my right now. God values the use of broken and weak people, circumstances and things when accomplishing his purposes. I often value being & using perfect and strong people, circumstances and things when accomplishing mine.
So, the truth is this: my impatience reveals my value system.
For, if I valued the things God values, my impatience and frustration would look alot more like expectancy and excitment.
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Kristen
Chris,
Haha! Well, this article title and the Gutensite server problems definitely made for some timely irony. :)
Thanks for your comment! I spent some time considering that very question (shurly not for the first or last time) before posting this. Truthfully, I too struggle with this idea that God values His glory supremely. When I boil down why I struggle, the answer is always the same: God's obession with His own glory seems obscenely prideful. This feels, well, icky. A prideful God?
In my head, I know that the concept of pride feels icky to me because it’s always associated with broken, sinful, human beings who demand glory they often aren’t due positionally … much less innately. For instance, a co-worker who arbitrarily interacts with an equal as if he/she were a subordinate. Prideful. Icky. Annoying.
I think that’s the point. God is due glory both positionally and innately. He holds the highest position there ever has been, or ever will be. He is the Uncreated One. His position alone demands respect, fame and glory. True, people who hold positions that demand respect, fame and glory aren’t necessarily obsessed with the acquisition of these things, but God’s demand for glory is not solely positional, it's also innate. He embodies the entirety of all things. Colossians 1:15-20 depicts this far better than I ever could. Referring to Jesus, the end of verse 16 says “all things were created through Him and for Him.” All things were created for the furtherance of His glory and to that end, He rightly should be obsessed.
To answer your question, (as best I can in my own imperfection) “Why is God always about His glory, what does He get from it?” I would humbly submit this: I don’t think it has anything to do with what He “gets from it.” Unlike us, His affirmations are not external. He is who He is. He is I AM. Functioning in a manner that brings glory to Himself is the natural outflow of being the sum total of all things.
At least, that’s my take on it. :) So appreciate your thoughts and challenging questions. Keep them coming!
Kristen
Chris
I appreciate this post. One of the questions it leaves me with, though, is "why is God about God's glory?" What does God get from it? Or is the case that God is about God's glory because somehow, in God's economy, manifesting that glory in our lives is fundamentally tied to the physics of goodness and reign of the kingdom?
Funny: I found you're site because I was googling and twitter searching for news about the gutensite server problems. Why I saw the title of this post, I thought it was going to be able that!