Do Your Circumstances Determine How You See God?

 "We tend to judge God by our circumstances, rather than our circumstances by who we know God is."

I heard that statement recently on a podcast I was listening to. I back the podcast up a couple minutes to listen again, so I could write it down without missing a word.

Let me say it again:

"We tend to judge God by our circumstances, rather than our circumstance by who we know God is."

Now, let me ask you what you tendency is:

Do you tend to judge God by your circumstances?

Or do you judge your circumstances by who you know God is?

It you're anything like me, there's the way you want to answer this . . . the way that you know should be true, and is sometimes. But, to be honest, we also have to admit that we the other sometimes too.

And how we answer that question has major implications for how we live and how we walk through whatever circumstances we're facing.

When we judge God by our circumstances, our response to and interaction with Him changes based on what we're facing. When things are good, God is good is loves us. When our circumstances get hard or something unexpected comes, we begin to doubt God. We wonder if He loves us. We wonder if He cares. And we begin to operate as He's unjust and uncaring. We can easily get overwhelmed and give up hope.

When we look at our circumstances through the lens of who we know God is, it doesn't remove the fact that things can be hard sometimes, or that we have questions and doubts. It means that we hold on to who we know God is in the middle of those doubts and questions. We have an anchor to hold onto in the hard times.

To see our circumstances through the lens of who God is, requires that we take the time to get to know Him. To develop a relationship with Him. Something we can lean on when things are hard and questions do come.

When it's Not Bad, But it's Not what You Had Planned

As I approach my 40th birthday, I've been more reflective than usual.

I think many of us feel that way as significant birthdays and other life milestones approach. We look at what is and what isn't in our lives. What we hoped for and what we're still hoping for.

My life today looks nothing like I thought it would at this point. Not what I thought growing up. Not even what I thought ten years ago.

It' would be easy to just focus on what I don't have that I thought I would at this point. That could get depressing pretty quickly, if all I focused on was the dreams that haven't happened yet and may not happen.

While reflecting on what hasn't happened can be a good thing, in moderation, we can't live there. We can't just live looking at what we wish we had. We have to shift our focus.

There are things we have that we wouldn't have if we'd gotten all we had hoped and dreamed for. It's just as important, if not more, to acknowledge those as well. Many of things things may be blessings we didn't even know about before they happened.

The biggest thing I'm reminded of is our need to approach this with gratitude. When we take the time to reflect on things, gratitude is vital. When we approach with gratitude, we're able to see how God was working in all that happened and all that we have. We can even begin to see how God is in the things we hoped and dreamed for that we don't have and may not receive.

The Silence In-Between

We have a tendency to want to jump straight from Good Friday to Resurrection Sunday.

We don't know what to do with Saturday.

We don't like Saturday.

Saturday is a day of silence. Of misunderstanding. Of confusion. Of doubt.

Even Scripture doesn't tell us anything about Saturday. Good Friday ends with Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus placing Jesus' body in a tomb (John 19:38-42). And then moves right into the account of the women coming to the tomb on Sunday and finding it empty (John 20:1-18).

Friday's despair becomes Sunday's celebration.

But, what about Saturday?

The silence doesn't mean that God wasn't still working out His plan that day. But, for Jesus' followers, the day wouldn't have been easy. Nothing was going the way they thought it should.

Confusion. Pain. Despair. Grief.

The companions of the day for many.

It's uncomfortable to sit in Saturday. So, we try to rush past it. Get through it as quickly as possible.

Bu, even though Scripture doesn't tell us explicitly of the actions of Jesus' followers on that day, we still know they walked through it. 

Saturday was the Sabbath. A day of rest. A day where they could do nothing but sit and wait and question what had happened. They had to wait until Sunday before they could do anything again.

Truthfully, Saturday is a place we often live in our everyday lives. We walk through times of pain and confusion. We have seasons when God seems silent and we wonder if He's paying attention to what's happening in our lives.

In John 20, we say what could maybe be a glimpse of what Jesus' followers did with their Saturday. Verse 19 says, "On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together . . ." 

The disciples were used to being together, eating together, doing life together. They continued to be together. They shared their experience. Instead of being alone in their confusion, pain, and grief, they were together.

So, what do we do with Saturday?

How do we handle the pain and confusion of the silence that seems to fall?

We hold to the truth that God is still working, even though we can't see it. And we hold to each other. We don't attempt tp get through it alone.