{"id":9681,"date":"2013-12-09T21:52:56","date_gmt":"2013-12-09T21:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/?p=9681"},"modified":"2016-08-23T02:59:27","modified_gmt":"2016-08-23T02:59:27","slug":"god-is-good-a-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/featured\/god-is-good-a-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is God Good? – A Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

There once was a priest, a lover of Jesus who served the people of his town well. Every time the town faced difficulties they would approach the priest and ask that he pray for them. \u00a0The priest loved the people and was happy to pray for the community, and he would withdraw to a special place where he liked to pray, and he would lift the concerns of the town to God with a special prayer. \u00a0God would always hear his prayer and God always helped the community.<\/span><\/p>\n

The priest served the community for many years until one day he died at a ripe, old age. \u00a0It came to be that once again there were some grave challenges in the town and they turned to the priests successor. \u00a0The successor was a good man but not like his mentor. \u00a0Some said he was not near as holy as his predecessor. \u00a0But he did know the special place and the special prayer,\u00a0so he went off to pray. \u00a0He said “Lord, I am not a holy man like your humble servant before me. \u00a0Please don’t hold this against\u00a0the people of the town. \u00a0Please hear my prayer and help my community.” \u00a0And God heard his prayer and helped the\u00a0community.<\/span><\/p>\n

When he died, the Town approached his successor and asked him to pray for the community in a crisis. \u00a0This priest did not know the special place or the special prayer, nor was he all that holy. \u00a0None the less, he agreed to intercede on behalf of the town. \u00a0He said to the Lord “It is not a formula or a magical incantation that you value nor do they motivate\u00a0you to help.\u00a0Lord, hear the cries of desperation of the people in the community, and please come to their assistance.”\u00a0\u00a0And God heard his prayer and helped the\u00a0community.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This priest died in time and his successor was a notorious type. \u00a0A lover of fame, prestige and the finery that comes with it. \u00a0The people of the community asked him in\u00a0a season of great trial to intercede on their behalf and ask God for help. \u00a0Begrudgingly he left his own pursuits and grumbled off to prayer. \u00a0Annoyed at the inconvenience of it all he said to God “Some God you are! \u00a0You are perfectly capable of solving the problems of the people of the town, that you have caused I might add, and yet you refuse to lift a finger to help these people unless we all beg and plead? \u00a0Whatever God! \u00a0Do whatever you want with these people, I don’t care.” \u00a0With that the priest went back to negotiating his next deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

And once again, God heard his prayer and helped the\u00a0community.<\/span><\/p>\n

– A re-imagining of a story by Anthony DeMello, SJ, from Taking Flight<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

___________________________________<\/span><\/p>\n

Quid pro quo<\/em><\/strong> is a Latin saying that means something for something<\/em>. \u00a0There is an idea that nothing is free, and this cultural belief manifests itself in our Christian faith in a variety ways. \u00a0 One example is the idea that we have to be good enough, perform the right ritual, say the correct prayer in the correct place\u00a0by the right person for God to hear our prayers and respond. \u00a0As such, an entire ministry industry<\/em> has been built around how to get God to do what we want Him to do. \u00a0In our desperation, like begging waifs, we look for the keys necessary to provoke \/ entice God to respond, often using scripture as a book of spells and incantations. \u00a0As another example, we often look for a scapegoat to blame for our discontentment;\u00a0the worship leader isn’t anointed enough, the pastor isn’t preaching the right stuff or the youth pastor is too worldly. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If truth be told as demonstrated in Christ, God doesn’t wait to respond to our good performance, the special prayer, in the special place by the special person. God initiates. \u00a0While we were still sinners God sent Jesus (Romans 5:8). God doesn’t help us because we are good. \u00a0God helps because He is good. \u00a0God doesn’t love in response to our love but because He is love (1John 4:8),\u00a0and to not love would be asking God not to be God. \u00a0We can love because God first loved us (1John 4:19). \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And yet, we are still invited into relationship. \u00a0We are invited to pray and to worship, to co-labor with God, and while the quality of our hearts are important, they are only the fruit of experiencing the love of God.\u00a0God responds because He is good not because we are. \u00a0When we succumb to quid pro quo, a very real fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, \u00a0it drives us to perform for something we already have in Jesus. \u00a0This produces toil in our lives not rest. \u00a0In fact, while we are out trying to fashion our own covering, our own righteousness to be acceptable to God, we are actually running in the opposite direction of the blessing that is to overcome us – the wonder of love in and through Jesus. \u00a0It is in this rest that we simply approach God, with empty hands –\u00a0no spiritual resume’ – and simply receive.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are all in a process of becoming. \u00a0We have our good days, and our not so good days. \u00a0Sometimes we say and do things that aren’t at all what we think they should be, and yet, many of us can attest that often God can take even our worst, faithless prayer and even our begrudging actions and leverage them to move mountains! \u00a0Faith and good behaviour\u00a0are not a kind of currency that we exchange with God for His goodies<\/em>. \u00a0God is not a genie in a lamp or a spiritual vending machine. \u00a0Faith is a relationship, and our relationship with perfect love is more than enough to cover our failings and\u00a0bad attitudes.<\/span><\/p>\n

[tweetthis]God is not a genie in a lamp or a spiritual vending machine.[\/tweetthis]<\/p>\n

Let’s give ourselves a free gift. \u00a0Let’s step off the treadmill of religious obligation, performance and all the tyranny that it produces, and simply receive the love of God; its rest, peace and blessing in the context of relationship with the Father. \u00a0I would also encourage us to consider allowing our leaders, mentors. teachers, bosses and family members off this treadmill as well. \u00a0Relieve them of any unhealthy expectations you have of them – spoken or unspoken.<\/span><\/p>\n

God is good, even when we’re not.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There once was a priest, a lover of Jesus who served the people of his town well. Every time the town faced difficulties they would approach the priest and ask that he pray for them. \u00a0The priest loved the people and was happy to pray for the community, and he would withdraw to a special…","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,32],"tags":[58,71,93,152,175,221,321,348],"class_list":["post-9681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-significant-sustenance","tag-authentic-living","tag-big-picture","tag-character-of-a-leader","tag-discipleship","tag-faith","tag-grace","tag-leadership","tag-love-paradigm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}