Friday, January 13, 2012

Challenging God

 In one of the readings from The Essential Jesus we were reading some history of the Israelites, particularly the time when Moses was leading them after they'd escaped captivity.  Do you know those stories?  Those stories used to always make me think those people sure did complain a lot.  It seemed to me that after God rescued them from slavery, they'd be so grateful they'd never again complain. 


I am finally starting to understand that we are all that way.  I wonder if I ever have a day that I don't complain about something.  I may complain that it is too cold, too warm, I'm too busy, I gain weight too easily, I don't have someone else's talent, and on and on.  I don't think of myself as a big complainer but it turns out that maybe I am.


The author went on to say that the main offense of the Israelites wasn't really that they complained so much, but that in doing so they were challenging God.  I was surprised to ponder the author's statement that the heart of all sin is challenging God.


I'm going to be thinking on that today.  What do you think of that?  Is "challenging God" the heart of all sin?  Do we sin because we think maybe we know better than God?  Is complaining a sin?   


Our society doesn't really even like to talk about sin.  Even the word, sin, is not used much in our world today.  It is not trendy.  It is not cool.  Maybe we should try to bring it back, use it more, think about it more.


Anyway, I was just pondering this today and wondered what you thought.  Are we challenging God when we sin?  Do we have a right to challenge God?  Any deep thoughts?  Any shallow thoughts?

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