He’s Not Doing Anything, Part 1 of 2
This is not the first time that I’ve brought up my issues with Christianese. I feel like there are some phrases that make sense to Christians in the context of their faith but those same phrases have no real meaning to anyone outside of it.
That’s normal, though. I mean, every culture and community has their own language and you can’t talk to someone outside of said community and expect ‘em to completely relate. I’m gonna digress on that topic. There are much smarter people than me who are into talking about that kinda stuff.
Here’s the deal: occasionally, there some questions that crop up in the context of Christianity that aren’t always easy to answer. I’m not gonna go down a list of ‘em in this particular post, but I thought I could start here. One of the questions that’s incredibly common in the Christian culture is:
What is God showing you right now?
This maybe a let down (and I’m sorry to disappoint). It’s not really one of those big questions but maybe you’ve been asked this recently. Maybe your most recent Bible study or group hit on it, maybe you’ve read it on some blog, or maybe someone you know asked you this. Or maybe not.
Either way, the more I thought about this, the more I kept thinking that it seems like some people have got an answer for this thing every single time they are asked. Granted, there are always gonna be people that have an answer to every question. I get that. I’m just curious as to how or why some people always have an answer to this and some people don’t. Don’t read this as me being cynical, because I’m not (okay, so maybe a little), but I can’t help but be a little envious of them.
Because, you know, there are people like me. We don’t always have an answer (this is a ‘we’ thing, right?). I’ll get more into that in the second half of this, but I gotta ask: is He showing you anything right now (big or small), or not?
i don’t get many answers. silence is typically how it is.
I second this. God’s not really showing me something 24/7… at least, not in a way I can identify it. I usually get my answers from experiences which are generally few and far between.
For me, it seems as if the answers are usually (though not always) clearer in hindsight.
But then I’m always afraid I’m risking rationalization that seeing the real thing. Make sense?
Totally get it. It’s like my experiences teach me… but after I’ve gone through them. I don’t get a heads up from god that things are going to be tough or great or anything like that.
That seems to be the trend with most of us here.
Glad I’m not alone in that.
I agree that there are many times when I don’t have anything that I think God is showing me. I think that is ok. But I also think at least part of the time when I am not learning anything it is because I am not trying. If I don’t read the bible, pray or participate in an open Christian community then it is not that I am not hearing, it is that I am not listening.
Totally agree with you here. Just like any relationship, you’re only gonna get something out of it if you actively interact..
I often find out more about myself and God in the silence than anything.
Seriously asking you this: why do you think that is?
Well, for me, a lot of it is a tearing down of myself when I start showing a lot me instead of a lot of Christ (I’m speak heavy Christianese here).
I’m the type of person when things are going well in my walk with God, I start to take it for granted and expect a lot more than I deserve. In the silence, I’ve discovered who I truly am. Like a desert island scenario where you find out who people really are.
Does that answer your question better, Mr. McFarlin? :)
Word.
And yes.
Sure, I would love to actually have God come down and tell me specifically what I should do, but I think that in modern times he typically speaks through circumstance.
I think of an Anberlin lyric for this “It’s alarming how loud the silence screams.”
Love that lyrics. Kinda gives me the chills (as cheesy as that sounds). But I’m gonna ask you the same thing I asked Brett: why do you think that is?
I think part of it, at least to me, is that it reveals a little more about my own relationship with God. If God came down and told me to go do a 1000 pushups then I highly doubt I’m not going to do my hardest to accomplish that. However, if I’m just trying to see what God is saying through circumstance then I believe it’s a lot harder to still obey and shows the strength of your relationship with him if you do.
I definitely agree we don’t often learn things about what God is leading/teaching us until we have hindsight and I think we also see how obedient we were in that time and whether that led us closer to God or not.
I put that lyric because I think God is often doing all he can to scream at us without making it conspicuous through words or an obvious (although it is sometimes) situation and how we choose to respond to that shows us where we are at with God and his will.
I think that most of the time we are looking for and wanting something *external* to speak to us – a friend, a sermon, music, the Bible, circumstance, a blog post. As Christians we forget that we have God in the form of the Holy Spirit already living inside us. It is the Spirit that causes us to recognize God in those external things. Why not take time to listen to what the Spirit has to say to us directly. It is in the silence that we can hear Him best. The thoughts and promptings that come to mind during meditation and prayer are totally Him at work. The struggle for me is disconnecting myself long enough to actually do that.
“The struggle for me is disconnecting myself long enough to actually do that.” Exactly.
At the risk of putting words in other people’s mouths, I think we need to work on spiritual development in concert with the personality that God gave us. Some people find God in silence, some in music, some in reading, some in community. I think all of us can learn to get something in a variety of methods. And I think there is value in working to see God outside our comfort zone, but I think that most of the time we will get most out of seeking God within our personality.
I hesitated to reply to you on this because it dances around what I’m gonna say next week, but that’s a dumb reason to not engage ;).
I absolutely do think that intersecting your personality – or the person you are with the traits you’ve been given – with your faith and development is the “sweet spot.”
There are countless times, at least in my life, where I’ve found that when I take the person I am and pursue things are in line with what He’s taught or asked of us, so many good things have happened. Kinda going along with what you’ve said, this may take us out of our comfort zone a bit, but much to dismay of a breed of Christians everywhere, stepping out of the comfort zone isn’t the only way for God to reach you.
And, to clarify the “good things have happened” statement, I mean opportunities for growth, challenge, maturity, and so on.
This has always gotten me as well, I was always confused because it seemed like everyone has was “seeing” things and I was really struggling to see anything. Often I would start to really question my spirituality, wondering if I was doing something wrong.
I think the real question is not what is God showing you right now (and I am guilty of asking that myself) but what are you going to do with what God has already shown you?
I think the plan is there and God has revealed himself to us, it is time to start moving.
“What are you going to do with what God has already shown you?” I like this because I think, at some point, that what it’s more about.
You aren’t gonna be shown something every minute of every day. I’d like to think that once He’s revealed something to you, then perhaps there’s some motivation to actually go and do (like you said). A call to action kinda thing.
Of course, this isn’t necessarily true in all contexts but I think it’s applicable over a wide margin.
For me, and I may be alone here, it’s not so much that God isn’t showing me anything; it’s that I have no idea what it is.
I mean to say, I know that he’s showing me SOMEthing. That he is working through my circumstances in SOME way. But for me to be able to reflect on it, isolate how that is, or what I need to learn from an experience and then relate that someone….not so much.
For me, it’s not so much that there’s silence; instead it is a lack of clarity.
I think that you have it. I usually can see what God has been telling me much better in hindsight.
Sometimes I think we’re on the same wavelength. Here especially with that whole “lack of clarity” thing.
I’m pretty comfortable in saying “I don’t know” or “nothing that I know of” when someone asks me this, but then there are times where I second guess myself. I wonder if I’ve missed something or if there’s a reason it’s been a while.
But, then again, it could just be the clarity issue doing its thing.
Too many times I’m not looking for what God is telling/communicating/teaching, doing. Sad but a reality in my life. Thanks for the kick in the rib cage! A classic example from my life is when my 5 year old wants me to look at something that he is doing or tell me something he has done and I’m too “busy” writing comment on a blog or something.
Blog comments are serious business. That kid needs to straighten out their priorities. ;)
Let’s get him on here for a guest post..
Dude, you’re dead on with what I was trying to convey last week. I absolutely know where you’re coming from.
Granted, I don’t have kids – not yet – but there are always distractions..
Just saw a post in Christianity Today that is at least partially on topic.
The article is called “Are we transformed yet?” And it complains a bit about the narcisism that can be induced when we focus on how God has changed us. (Or in the context of this discussion, how God has spoken to us).
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/februaryweb-only/15-41.0.html
Definitely gonna check this out – thanks for sharing it.
I’ve stumbled across numerous articles on that site before and have always really appreciate the sincerity of what they say. I feel like – at least what I’ve read – they don’t sugarcoat stuff and are totally cool with presenting ideas that’ll cause you to shift a little in your seat while reading..
Well, there’s relatively easy way of seeing what God is showing you in the context of that being similar to God’s will. One thing I hear people say that I cannot stand is, “I am waiting for God to reveal to me His will for my life.” Why is that? Because it makes it seem like God is standing up there with a sign that has “My will for Jay’s life” on it and he has it hidden behind his back and he’s only going to show it to use when he’s good and ready.
It’s absurd. People in my view use the “I’m waiting…” reasoning to just that. Wait. And wait. And wait. I the meantime, all of these opportunities to do something that glorifies God and further His kingdom are passing by. Finally, when something comes along that is happiness oriented we shout, “Eureka! God’s will for my life has been revealed!” I’ve always thought this to be a pretty selfish kind of attitude.
Andy Stanley did a study on this and he broke it down pretty clearly. First we have to recognize God’s providential will. These are the things that will happen or have happened that God wanted to happen. Nothing we or anybody else can or will do, will stop that from happening. Next is to apply God’s moral will to our lives. That’s where those 10 commandments come in as well as Christ’s teaching. Stanley said once we’re right with those two, the third (God’s will for our life or what God is “showing us”) becomes very easy for us to see.
This happens to me all the time. I often wonder, “God, what should I do here?” with some situations and I think back. Recognizing and accepting God’s providential will is the easy part. It’s that next part where we struggle so much and I attribute my inability to see what God wants to show me or what he wants me to do with my life with the fact that I often stumbled badly with God’s moral will.
One thing he showed me recently is my move to start making it as a full time photographer. I almost gave up on it figuring if it didn’t happen when I was 27-28, then it wouldn’t happen. Of course, I wanted to do it in my timing, not His. It was only when I finally let go that things changed. I never thought it would happen, but now doors are opening all over the place.
Now that I am no longer a spring chicken I have been very encouraged by people making significant changes fairly late in life. Julia Child didn’t start cooking until she was in her late 30s, didn’t finish her first cook book until she was almost 50, didn’t start her TV career until after that. Corrie Ten Boom hid Jews during the holocaust when she was in her 50s and didn’t right her first book about it until she was 70. What I get is that change happens when change happens.
It’s funny how, looking back at history, we don’t often associate a persons age to something significant happen. We know the person’s name, what they’re famous for, and how it happened, but we – or, okay, maybe just me – don’t always pay that close attention to their age.
It’s kinda like what Austin hit on in terms of leaving out certain details.
There’s so much I wanna comment on here..
First off, I’m in total agreement with you about people using God as some sorta excuse to delay what they want. Honestly, this post almost turned into something about that. The more I sat on it, the more it morphed into what it is here. Anyway, I think you’re exactly right in talking about “in the meantime, all of these opportunities … are passing by.” The second half of this post is related to this, too.
Secondly, love the example regarding the photography. It’s amazing how, once you relinquish control, desire, or whatever else you wanna call it, how things begin to coast along much smoother. I’m in the process of doing that right now with something that’s a little more personal. But, yeah, reminding myself to relinquish control of it is the hard part.
awesome topic..
deep question… I wish i had a definitive answer. I think like what you said hindesight is usually our best gauge at seeing God prompting.. or seeing when He speaks to you in a certain situation.
I am struggling right now to see what God has for me… in this new season. Im not sure what to do.. where to go.. so many questions. But then again I really haven’t “stopped” doing anything to hear or to see if He is saying anything to me….maybe because I might be afraid of what He will say.?!?! I dunno.
hmmm now u have me thinking..
I dunno if there’s a totally definitive answer. The problem with the hindsight perspective is that hindsight always happens after the fact. Sometimes it’d be nice to have that kinda clarity (like Danny mentioned) in the middle of something rough.
Way to make an honest assessment, Tom. And everyone else. Because as soon as your post popped up on my reader, I saw “What is God showing you” in bold, and I cringed.
I’m not letting Him in very well these days, but even when He and I are good all I can say to that is “Sometimes, Himself. That is the best.” And people sort of cock their head to one side and nostril flare/confused lip twitch.
So, I guess I just want to say keep up the good work.
I dig your honesty. This – along with the rest of the comments – are the kinds of thing I really get into people sharing especially because it’s not putting up a facade regarding faith.
It’s the legitimate challenges people (myself included) have in their life.
I think most people give a churchy answer to this question because they are afraid they will look “less Christian” if they don’t have an answer for what God is showing them.
In my experience, people that always have something God is showing them are often those that are farther from God. Relationships with people are not all about learning something…they are about loving each other a communicating…DOING LIFE.
God doesn’t just speak to people all the time. Some would argue that the Bible says differently, and I would tell the that the Bible is like a good book, movie, or TV show: It cuts out all the boring crap!
You see people go to work in the movies and you see them arrive at parties, but you rarely see the people actually doing those mundane tasks…you only get to see the fun action filled parts of their lives.
So it is with the Bible. There aren’t many boring scenes in the Bible because it is a collection of stories and all good storytellers know how to keep an audience: GIVE THEM THE ACTION.
So God is not showing stuff to people left and right. We live in reality where there can be long stretches when God doesn’t show anything. So, don’t fake it.
Next time someone asks just say, “Well, right now He’s not showing me anything. And that’s just fine with me…because the last time He did my life got turned upside down and he probable knew I needed a little break.”
Dude, you’re thoughts on how the Bible is laid out is so true. Until I actually started reading the book from cover to cover, I didn’t realize how many years pass not necessarily between individual books but between chapters alone. It’s really important to kinda keep that in mind not only when reading through it, but when – like you – going through life.
““Well, right now He’s not showing me anything. And that’s just fine with me…because the last time He did my life got turned upside down and he probable knew I needed a little break.” That’s funny. Totally true, but funny.
Of course, I’m saying that because things aren’t upside down right now. I doubt I’d be laughing if that were the case.
But at least if things were upside down you would have something to say if someone asked you what God was showing you!