e158 When You Say, “It’s complicated.” (I say, “God chose complicated.”)

This is Faith to Witness 99, motivating us to hear God and share the Shepherd.  

Season 3 Episode 158 When You Say, “It’s Complicated.” (I Say, “God Chose Complicated.”)  

Here’s the gist, human. We find solace in repeating decisions that allow us to retreat from what is uncomfortable. We think we are making good decisions. We ask God to direct us. Yet because we cannot see how it is possible that he can navigate the decisions of people out of our control, well, we stand at the window like a child, watching for his next move when barely a minute has passed in the presence of a timeless God. We fall into resignation when our situation, our relationship continues on with no change, no turn for the better. This sounds like some spiraling indie reality, but we actually do this in lives that aren’t half-bad. Tolerable. We let what we don’t like, no longer want to deal with “go dark” inside.

So, we don’t have to work through a life that is just too complicated. God chose complicated. Join us. E158. Thanks for listening.

When was the last time you responded to someone with this: “it’s complicated.”

I’m Kathryn Bise, your host.

For me, it was yesterday. I was referring to what it takes within the creative process to commit to a premise, a direction, to turn the corner of commitment and make a choice. Writing can be confusing, full of false attempts, overinflated ideas, and words that are either inspired by our Creator. Or not.

The same could be said about our relationships. And the life scenarios we live through one by one. Side by side. On top of each other. Layers of life stacked high with emotion, memories, good intent, bad behavior. And so on.

Truth is, living a simple earthly life is uphill and hard to do. While our intent is to make decisions that keep it simple, the choices we make about pretty much everything can build layers of consequences, choices over choices, until we find ourselves stuck in the confusion of contradicting actions. Repeating old conversations in a relationship. Conversations that seem to just run on a loop. Or habitually backing into a situation with no clear way out. Or living in the middle of conflicting relationships, or within the pressure of several relationships bumping up against each other. Old family relationships that never seem to change. No matter what new approach we might take.

It’s true. There is power in the choices we make. One decision alone can fragment into an emotional explosion of micro decisions that soon become a familiar way to react.

We find solace in repeating decisions that allow us to retreat from what is uncomfortable. We fight our battles on familiar psychological battle grounds when there is no opponent, and we become spiritually delusional about what our self-directed expectations really are. We think we are making good decisions.

We ask God to direct us.

Yet because we cannot see how it is possible that he can navigate the human interactions that must happen, the decisions of people out of our control, the “that’s never going to happen” scenarios, well, we stand at the window like a child, watching for his next move when barely a minute has passed in the presence of a timeless God.

We fall into resignation when our situation, our relationship continues on with no change, no turn for the better. We are not surprised when it gets worse. Maybe better for a while, then the false hope is exposed when it turns yet another unexpected direction.

This sounds like some spiraling indie reality, but we actually do this in lives that aren’t half-bad. Tolerable. We let what we don’t like, no longer want to deal with “go dark” inside.

So, we don’t have to work through a life that is just too complicated.

But the truth we need to seek is this: God chose complicated. If we can open our hearts and minds to who he is.  

God Chose Complicated

God chose the complicated life we live that comes from always having a choice. Free will.

He wanted a relationship and who better to know how to navigate relationships than the God who created Eve for Adam? He gave us the power to choose. On everything in our lives.

And what makes it even more unbelievable is that while he saves us once, through his Son, for all eternity, he continues to navigate our daily choices and act in ways we cannot yet see, as he walks before us.

God chose complicated.

It’s called free will.

It’s called the creation.

It’s called his Son.

It’s called the Holy Spirit.

It’s called the gloriously intricate workings of the human body. 37 trillion cells, each with its own specialized functions and interactions.

Consider how a plant grows.

How the sky changes second by second.

How the tide remains faithful to its ebb and flow.

How the human brain invents, creates, discovers, synthesizes, rallies, and rebels.

How the human heart loves.

Romans 1:20

 

20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

What are the questions we ask about God?  Zophar, one of three annoying friends of Job, had a few self-probing questions for Job.

Job 11:7-9 Zophar

 

Can you fathom the mysteries of God?

Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?

8They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do?

They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know?

9Their measure is longer than the earth

and wider than the sea.

What are the questions God asks Job? Well, he uses all of Job chapter 38 for this. Here’s a taste of it.

Job 38:4-11, 39-41

 

The Lord Speaks

 

4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?

    Tell me, if you understand.

5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!

    Who stretched a measuring line across it?

6 On what were its footings set,

    or who laid its cornerstone—

7 while the morning stars sang together

    and all the angels shouted for joy?

8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors

    when it burst forth from the womb,

9 when I made the clouds its garment

    and wrapped it in thick darkness,

10 when I fixed limits for it

    and set its doors and bars in place,

11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;

    here is where your proud waves halt’?….

 

39 “Do you hunt the prey for the lioness

    and satisfy the hunger of the lions

40 when they crouch in their dens

    or lie in wait in a thicket?

41 Who provides food for the raven

    when its young cry out to God

    and wander about for lack of food?

 

A Complicated Life? No Problem.

So, what is God’s response to our needs? Our request for him to help us with our complicated life?

When we say, “it’s complicated.”

He says, “No problem.”

Romans 11:33-34

 

33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

    How unsearchable his judgments,

    and his paths beyond tracing out!

34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?

    Or who has been his counselor?”

 

God’s Resume Reads: Timeless, All-Knowing, All-Powerful, and All-Present

So, trusting his resume, his problem-solving skills, his divine qualifications should literally be no problem. Do you have people in your life, you would trust with anything? I do. How much more so our divine God? Let’s start with four headliners.

Consider the qualification that God is timeless.  He has all the poker hands, all the hidden plays, all the outcomes and consequences already in front of him on the table. His table of timelessness. He can play your hand, lead you through life’s strategic mine field, and produce outcomes that give you the consequence that matters—spiritual growth.

Just know that.

Psalm 90:2

 

2 Before the mountains were born

    or you brought forth the whole world,

    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

 

Consider the qualification that God is all-knowing. That sounds so comforting, so resolved. He’s got this. He knows my heart. But let’s be more specific. God knows what every person has done, is doing and will do. So, when I am second-guessing someone’s motive, plans, intent, God has come before me. He knows all the triggers for that person. He knows what will inspire, discourage, energize, and give him peace.

He knows what will motivate someoe in a relationship. When it seems like your relationship with a sibling, a spouse, a friend, relative, co-worker will never improve, go to a better place, consider what the apostle Peter said in his second letter:

2 Peter 3:8

 

8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

 

Is it so hard to give God your life, roughly 1/10^th of his day (like a thousand years)?

When God speaks to me, when the Spirit commands, His Word commands my life, he is asking me to go to the front lines of a struggling relationship, the foxhole of a circumstance.  The center of a season with multiple plots.

Isaiah 40:13-14

 

13 Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord,

    or instruct the Lord as his counselor?

14 Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him,

    and who taught him the right way?

Who was it that taught him knowledge,

    or showed him the path of understanding?

 

1 John 3:20

 

20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

 

If our hearts condemn us, when we say “it’s complicated” apostle John reminds us that God is greater than our hearts.

Consider the qualification that God is all-powerful. That sounds promising. He has the power to uncomplicate my situation, my relationship, my mind, my heart. By all-powerful, I mean God is sovereign.

Daniel 4:35

 

“All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?'”.

 

Psalm 115:3

 

3 Our God is in heaven;

    he does whatever pleases him.

Are you trying to hold back God’s hand? The divine hand that holds every complicated measure of your life?

If I was 100 and my body felt as good as dead, I probably would be skeptical of God’s power. Like Abraham.

Romans 4:18-21

 

18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

 

God has the power. Abraham is just one early example of the people in God’s story who were thrown into lives with complicated odds. Joseph, Ruth, David, Solomon, Nehemiah, Esther, Daniel, the apostle Paul. All the apostles. The Bible is full of complicated relationships, circumstances, and the deepest of heart trauma. Jesus claimed victory over complicated on the cross.

And finally, consider the qualification that God is everywhere. This seems impossible. To be everywhere at once. But a reassuring response to how we think the relationships and the situations we are in are not navigable. 

That they are too dark.

Psalm 139:7-12

 

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?

    Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

    if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me,

    your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

    and the light become night around me,”

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;

    the night will shine like the day,

    for darkness is as light to you.

 

But God Said, “Let There Be Light”

How is it that our human defeat gene fighting for a stronghold within us has already suffered death by exposure?

Because God Said, “Let There Be Light”.

Genesis 1:1-3

 

The Beginning

 

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

 

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

 

God will light our way through the blinding parts of our life that have gone dark.

Deuteronomy is one of my favorite books, in part because of Moses’ final speeches to the Israelites before they enter the Promised Land. Moses brings it all together in the final days of his life. Before the Promised Land.

Deuteronomy 30:11-14:

 

“Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it”.

God is within, through his Son, and the Holy Spirit.

About now I am prompting my heart to remember why I went this path today. I know that God is always revealing himself to me, and because he is my Creator he has to help me live in the wisdom of his truth. So, I am here, in the land of complicated living to help us get a firmer spiritual grasp on the Master of Complicated. He chose it. He chose us and armed us with the choice to trust him, to give it to him, no matter how gnarly the GPS is in our relationships, in our situations, our seasons, our hearts.

God is moving us through our darkness to the light of his will.

Ephesians 1:11

 

11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,

 

Your Complicated Life

Think of this human, in your complicated life. About the places you have allowed to go dark. I know this. We have all gone dark within, in ways that impede God’s intent to grow our spiritual character.

Think of something, human. Search for it.

Think of the relationship that needs work. A relationship that is so complicated by human meddling. You have tried to approach it differently; you reluctantly leave it alone again and again because you don’t want an implosion. Or explosion.

Think of that situation you think needs changing. But it requires some heavenly strategy, a movement of our God to take it somewhere else. You are powerless in it. You are paralyzed by it. You cannot imagine living through it, beyond it.

Think of that introduction you need to do to make a connection to someone who is lost.

God chose complicated. God chose us.

Let him do his work through your free will. Let him redeem a simpler life for you.

Then tell someone about what Jesus did to bring you through complicated.

Because that person’s life is complicated too.