My NOT at all boring God

I’m just so glad God is not boring.  There is a movie that came out called “God is Not Dead.”  I think it looks pretty good and I plan to go see it.  But church people spend a whole lot of time either trying to prove the existence of God or being quite discouraged that people don’t desire to obey God.  And I was just thinking this morning that maybe the greatest proof of Him and biggest part of His story that we forget to tell is that He is so NOT BORING.  I guess it wouldn’t really matter if He is a dead or alive - or obeyed or not  -if He was boring and predictable and did and said all the same things we say and do and think.  Anne Lamott says, “You can be sure you have made God in your own image when He hates all the same people you do.”  Because the alive God doesn’t.  The alive God doesn’t hate anyone.  He hates evil but not those who do it.  Because evil hurts them.  And that is complicated and takes a whole life time to understand.  That is not boring.  I wouldn’t make the living God up - because the living God isn’t anything like me and I am just not creative or brave enough to say the things He says.

God says, “Love your enemies.” “Do good to those who hurt you.”  “Sell everything you have and give it to the poor.” “Leave everything and follow me.”  And that’s not boring.  That’s crazy.  God is crazy.  A co-worker of mine is reading a book called the “Insanity of God.”  Other friends of mine live it.  One of my closest friends is packing up her five kids and moving 1/2 way across the world this morning on nothing but faith and the promises of strangers... to tell other strangers “God loves you” for the rest of her life.  She is 34 and doesn’t know the language.  That’s crazy.  My other friend just got diagnosed with a chronic degenerative pain disease that keeps her in bed most of the time - WHILE she tries to take care of 4 small kids - and God says, “Rejoice ANYWAY!”  That’s nuts.  

God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways.”  No, they sure are NOT.  My thoughts are boring.  Like - “let’s all live happily ever after and drink tea by the fire place and grows flowers for the next 45 years and then die in our sleep.”  I’m a bit boring.  God is not.  God calls people like my parents to spend their entire stinking lives taking care of six people that other people consider “broken and a burden” and “too bad they were ever born”.  God says, “I choose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.”   God says, “unless you become like one of these - you cannot enter my kingdom.” God chooses weak, broken, messed up people like me to proclaim His message of love.  What IS He thinking?  I have no idea.  
People around me sit in pews Sunday after Sunday wondering how anyone can think God is dead.  Maybe they don’t. Maybe they just don’t CARE if He is dead or alive because they think He is so stinking boring.  He’s not. Some days I wish He were... but then I remember what I first learned about Him... that He is GOOD.  All Good.  All love. And it is pretty important to be all good if you are going to be not at all boring.

A few of the not boring people God has put in our lives.  If you are a prayer.  Please pray for our super AWESOME staff at Bethesda right now.  Each one of them love the men and the love God and they desire to hear from God as to what He has for their lives.  We know one thing... Bethesda sure is a great place to learn some of life's most un-boring lessons.  Pray for God's non-boring direction for each of them... whether it mean staying with a difficult job that pays nothing, or missions, or family farming... we know He has something exciting planned for each of them!

And sometimes God does let us sit by the fire.  I just love how he brings people from Kenya and Korea to Hays Kansas to close friends, so we can all teach each other things that we would never learn apart!  It's crazy.  Days around here are crazy... like when all these students go on road trips in different directions, calling "home" with flat tires in the middle of the Arizona desert and Jarod walks them through an ESL tire change... And the spring break stories are just beginning!! Please pray for our friends traveling in NY, DC, Arizona, Florida, the Bahamas, L.A. and pray that he Saudis decide WHERE they are going before they get in a car and drive off...

And we were totally fine like this.  I could have had a hot dog roast once a week with this group from now until they go off to college.  That would have been my plan.  But he gave us two of them from Romania... and He is taking 5 of them to Thailand.  He can do that.  He is God.  He has big plans.  And that is a good thing... just please pray for my little kiddos hearts.. that they may know that God is good and loving... because I am afraid sometimes they have learned the "God is not boring" part first.  And that can be a rough order.