Words With Which to Whine
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?�
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,� said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.�
Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,â€? he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloamâ€? (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
He was blind in order that the work of God might be displayed in his life. Does not God work in our lives through our difficult circumstances? How often do we deal with these difficult situations in life with the same perspective the disciples had: What did I do to deserve this? Why does this have to happen to me?
Though our sin is often the source of our suffering, it’s not all about us.
A friend of mine shared a few paragraphs from a Max Lucado book with me on the subject of displaying God’s work in our lives. He likened it to the display of a picture and all the tools needed to do the job. I sort of stopped paying attention at that point because I started thinking of all the tools involved in displaying a picture: the frame, mat, glass, a wall, and of course the nail that gets pounded into the wall. We are all different tools. Sometimes we get to be the frame, sometimes we get to be the nail.
During those days and seasons where I get to be the nail, it would be a lot harder to whine about it if I used Christ’s words.
Imagine: Why do I have to display the works of God in my life? I don’t wanna display the works of God! Whaaa, whaaaa, whaaa!
I don’t think I’d whine as much if I had to use those words.
January 26th, 2005 at 1:47 pm
Good post, but Max Lucado is icky.
January 26th, 2005 at 6:16 pm
Thanks Twylah. I haven’t really read enough of Max to know the ick factor. Mostly I’m just aware of the good bits he writes which are shared with me by friends. He seems to be gifted with words but I don’t know much more than that.
January 26th, 2005 at 7:48 pm
I shouldn’t have said he was icky. My experience of his work is confined to one children’s picture book with an icky predictable PC “everyone hates to be labelled” theme. I read it to my Sunday school class one day and I didn’t like it, that’s all. That doesn’t make Max icky. I have to stop running off at the mouth (e.g. at the expense of evangelical/fundamentalist types whose style of Christianity doesn’t suit my taste).
I love your blog and I thank you for it.
January 26th, 2005 at 7:55 pm
I’ll say it: Max Lucado is icky.
February 1st, 2005 at 8:26 pm
Christian Carnival
We have the honor of hosting the Christian Carnival here at Wittenberg Gate this week. Forty-one Christian bloggers of a large variety of denominations and perspectives have contributed their best writing of the week for your reading pleasure and edifi…
February 4th, 2005 at 1:50 pm
Lucado does belong to a denomination that teaches baptism as necessary for salvation. That doesn’t come out in any of his writings that I know of, though. I really enjoyed his first two books On the Anvil and No Wonder They Call Him the Savior and then also God Came Near but not quite as much. By the time I got a good way into his fourth book, I was getting pretty bored. It was the sort of fluff that is nice if you intersperse it with real meat, but I’m the sort who likes the meat more and needs the fluff but can’t deal with it without the meat. So I gave up on him. That was probably 12 years ago.
February 7th, 2005 at 7:45 pm
Christian Carnival LV
The 55th Christian Carnival is at Wittenberg Gate. My Sider on Evangelicals Mirroring the World is part of it….
February 7th, 2005 at 7:45 pm
Christian Carnival LV
The 55th Christian Carnival is at Wittenberg Gate. My Sider on Evangelicals Mirroring the World is part of it….