Disappointed By God?

DISAPPOINTED BY GOD?

JOB 36-40

"You have to be present to win," was a sign at a raffle at a retirement center in Florida. I like that sign because that is how life is, right? We have to be present if anything is going to happen. We have to show up. So many people sit on the sidelines. They drift through life. They hang back, checking in sometimes, putting in time; but, if we are going to win, we have to be present.

If we are going to be present to win the raffle, there is also the option that if we are present to win, we might be present to lose. Only one person can win a raffle usually; not everybody wins. We don't always win at life. Sometimes things don't work out for us like we want them to.

Sometimes circumstances or choices or issues affect our lives in negative ways. We end up feeling like we are not winning at all. But life requires a very basic thing...that you show up every day.

God is interested in our lives, what we do, the choices we make, and how we respond to him. Where do we put our focus? Is it on him or on other stuff that surrounds us, things that are going on in our lives?

Today we are going to look at what about when God does disappoint us, at least from our perspective. How do we manage that? How do we deal with that? How do we own up to the reality of our disappointment with God?

I want to spend some time today honestly looking at an issue that often times we ignore. What about when we are disappointed with God? When things don't go like we want them to? When somehow God is not necessarily meeting our expectations? When things aren't happening like we prayed for

or hoped to? Things aren't always looking good to us. Disappointment that sometimes comes from our perspective with God I think happens in three different ways.

First of all when God doesn't meet our expectations, sometimes there is disappointment for us. Very simply when God doesn't do what we think he should do. I would venture to say that if you have been a Christian for very long there have been times you have prayed and prayed sincerely, not even for yourself but for somebody else, and it didn't work out like you had prayed it should. Your picture is that God didn't do his part somehow.

Maybe it is a grander scheme of things. We look around the world and see all the trouble. Famines, droughts, floods, wars. Children who suffer. A couple of weeks ago in the news I read about a three-year old girl who was abducted and sexually assaulted by an eight-year old boy and a nine-year old boy. What a tragedy!

How come those things happen? Certainly we catch ourselves at times saying, "If we were in charge of the universe, this kind of stuff wouldn't go on!" For example, if you were in charge would you let all the hurricanes happen this past summer? We look at some of those things that happen and we wonder how come, God? How come it is going like that? How come you’re not involved like we think you should be? How come you are not connecting in? Certainly since we are following you these things shouldn't be going on? Sometimes I catch myself wanting to quote Mother Teresa who said one time, "God, if this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you don't have very many." Aren't there days we feel that way? God doesn't do what we think he should do.

In John, chapter 11, one of Jesus' best friends has died and he goes up to Bethany, Lazarus's hometown. The two sisters, Mary and Martha, come at different times with the same statement, with the same response to Jesus. They say to him, "If you would have been here, our brother wouldn't have died." Do you know what they were saying? You didn't do what we thought you should do. You didn't help like we thought you would help. If you were really God, we wouldn't be preparing for a funeral.

Aren't there moments in our lives when we wonder why God doesn't do what we think he should do? If we are honest, those can be disappointing times.

The second way I think we are disappointed with God at times is when we are in the wilderness, when God seems a long ways off to us. When the night gets dark and the storm clouds roll in and the fog prevents us from seeing very far. We think our prayers are unanswered, at least they

don't seem to be answered. God is a speck, way off in the distance if he is there at all. Sometimes we are lonely and afraid.