On our plane trip out to San Diego this summer they showed the film Bruce Almighty with Jim Carey. Besides being hilarious, it had a real message behind it. Carey plays Bruce Nolan, a local Eyewitness News TV reporter in Buffalo, New York. He is discontented with almost everything in his life, even though he has a decent job and a wonderful and beautiful girlfriend named Grace, played by Jennifer Aniston. Bruce is trying to get the job of the soon-to-retire news anchor, but everything seems to be going against him. He finds himself complaining about everything in his life, even though most of it is very good. He then begins complaining to God about how he is running the world. The slightest inconvenience leads to a tirade against the Almighty. He says out loud that he thinks he could do a better job of running the universe than God does.
This leads to a confrontation with God, played by Morgan Freeman. He explains that he is The One, the Alpha & Omega, but Bruce is unconvinced. Let’s look at what happens next. (Insert Clip 31:113 - 32:23)
At first, Bruce doubts that any of what he has experienced is real. Then, as every word he says, and every thing he thinks, miraculously happens, he is intrigued by his new powers. Instead of stepping into a mud puddle, he walks on the water. Stopping in a diner, he orders a bowl of tomato soup and then parts it like Moses did the Red Sea. But he soon has second thoughts about what it is like to be God. He starts hearing voices in his head which turn out to be prayers — millions of prayers. He decides to answer “Yes” to all the prayers, which creates chaos all around him. He pulls the moon closer to earth as a romantic gesture to impress his girlfriend, but creates tidal waves in various parts of the world. The interesting part of the film for me was that everything Bruce did with his almighty power was use it for selfish purposes. In the end, Bruce is glad to hand God’s power back to him. He decides to be just a normal guy and let God be God. He needed to understand that there were things he did not and could not understand. There were reasons why God sometimes said “No.”
What would you do if you could be God for one week, or even a day? Which power would you choose if you could have only one? Omnipotence — being all powerful? Omniscience — being all wise? Would you choose to be invisible or have the ability to travel anywhere instantly? Would you choose to have x-ray vision, or the ability to leap tall buildings with a single bound? Would you like to be invincible so that nothing could hurt you. Bullets would bounce off you — if you decided not to catch them in your teeth? It would be interesting to see what you would do with your extraordinary powers.
The are a few things that you need to remember when you think that you could do God’s job better than he does. The first one is: There is one God, and you are not him. The Bible says, “Oh, what a wonderful God we have How great are his riches and wisdom and knowledge How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his methods ” (Romans 11:33 -NLT). You cannot be Me Almighty The Bible says, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1). We might add to that: “The fool says in his heart, ‘I am God,’ or ‘I think I could do a better job than God.’” It is tempting to think that if we were God we would do things differently. We would do it right and administer justice the way it should be done. We would use our power for good and make the world a better place than it presently is under God’s control. There would be no cancer. There would be no earthquakes. There would be no war.
John Hodgman, on NPR’s program The American Life, took an informal survey which proved to be telling. He asked people what they would do if they were suddenly endowed with a superpower. What Hodgman discovered was that all the people he interviewed talked about using their superpower in self-serving ways. None of them planned on using them for heroic purposes or even particularly kind ends. No one talked about fighting crime. No one talked about correcting injustice. No one said anything about working for peace — personally, locally or globally. No one mentioned acts of mercy or just being helpful. As one man pondered having super powers, he said: “I’d go to Paris, I suppose. I could be ‘Going to Paris Man.’” The people who chose the power to be invisible stated that they would use their power to steal from expensive stores, spy on their coworkers, stalk someone, hang around showers, get on airplanes free, etc., etc. Like Bruce Nolan, they all thought about using their power for themselves instead of good.
The effective message of the Lord of the Rings trilogy is how corrupting power really is. Even good people are seduced by the ring of power and want to use it in self-serving ways which ends up destroying them and creating great evil. As the old adage says, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” We could never handle the power of God.
Satan’s fatal error was thinking he could handle the power. Isaiah talks about him when he says: “You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:13-14). But instead of being exalted, he became obscene.
The second thing you need to remember is: God’s job is harder than you think. It is not easy to be God. An old Jewish proverb says, “If God lived on earth, people would break his windows.” Jesus has shown us that the path to glory is not strewn with flowers, but soaked with blood. God has never spared himself from pain and difficulty — even though he could have as God. Bruce Nolan in his short stint as “The Almighty” figured out real quick that being God was not as easy as he thought. And Bruce did not face being crucified, but even the little problems God faces began to crush him. He had to figure out how to answer prayers that were in direct contradiction of each other. The sheer volume of requests overwhelmed him. And the way he answered prayers had much more far reaching effects than he could have ever imagined.
Everything seems simple to the untrained. Playing a guitar looks simple until you try it. I tried it, and I quit. A tree looks simple, after all, what is there but a trunk, branches and leaves. But the more you study a simple tree the more you understand how complex it is, and that there are things about it that are so complex you will never be able to comprehend them. There are those who think it would be simple to solve the problems and inequities of the world, but of course that is because they have never had to actually do it. When politicians campaign, they make running the country sound so simple. They make promises that they can never fulfill, because being president is much more difficult than anyone who has not done it can imagine. In fact, much of the time it is impossible to get done what you want to do, even when you are trying to do the right thing. More times than not, you don’t even know what the best thing is.
But we are always looking for the simple solution. Last week, someone gave me a letter they had received. In the letter was a paper “Prayer Rug.” The instructions say that you are to stare at the closed eyes of Jesus until you see them open and look back at you. Then you are to take the prayer rug and kneel on it and make your requests. Then, of course, you are to return the prayer rug, along with a donation, in the self-addressed, postage paid envelope. Included in the mailing are testimonies of people who received unexpected money or a new car after using the prayer rug. Many people want to use God rather than submit to God. Some people do not necessarily want to be God, but they try to manipulate God. They think that getting God to do what they want is done through some kind of hocus pocus. If only they do all the right things and follow certain techniques, they believe that God is obligated to do what they ask. But it is never that simple.
A lot of people view God as some kind of cosmic gum-ball machine. You put something in and something comes out. You do this and God does that. But God is not a machine; he is a person. It all seems so simple until you really try to understand what it means to be God. This was the dilemma of Job. He thought God had made a terrible mistake in his case, and he wanted to argue his case with God. He said: “Even today my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning. If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments” (Job 23:2-4). He wanted to “fill his mouth with arguments” — not unlike many people today. But in the end, Job discovered who God was, and God talked to him about what it was like to create and run the world. He said to Job: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand” (Job 38:2-4). And as God told Job what it meant to be God, Job said, “I am unworthy — how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer — twice, but I will say no more” (Job 40:4-5). I think if we realized what it meant to be God we would put our hands over our mouths as well.
The third thing to remember is: Our goal is to be like God, not to be God. In our arrogance, we are not content to become like God in his character, we want to be God. This is what leads to dysfunction and distress in our lives. If you want to taste real power, here is what you do. You try to understand the scripture that says: “‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:6-8). To pursue power and puff yourself up with pride is to make God your enemy, and he will oppose you. Try to be God and you will never be weaker. Try to be like God in your heart and you find power. In the Christian life the way up is down and the way down is up. In other words, the path of success is the lowly path of humility toward God and others. The surest way down is to exalt yourself and become stiff-necked with pride. Whenever you fail to give appropriate worship to God, you begin to worship yourself.
Adam and Eve made that tragic mistake of wanting to be God. The devil told them to eat the forbidden fruit, deceiving them with the words: “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). Now when he said they would be like God, he meant that they would be like him in wisdom and power, not like him in character. The last thing the devil wanted was for them to be like God in character. Here is how to have real life: “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24).
Richard Wumbrand, in Voice of the Martyrs wrote: “The great hindrance to spreading the gospel in communist lands was not the Iron Curtain. We have easily broken through that. The hindrance is the Silk Curtain of easy living. I saw in Miami an ocean show in which a barefooted man fought with an alligator. He hit him with a stick on his head and drew him by his tail. The alligator snapped occasionally at him but never did him any harm. I asked the man: ‘You seem healthy. You can make your living in some other manner. One day the alligator will bite you, and you will be gone.’ He answered, ‘Out of the question.’ Marveling about his assurance, I asked him if he had an agreement with the alligator. He said: ‘No, but before every show the alligator is over-fed. An over-fed alligator does not bite.’ This is the situation of many Christians in the free world.”
In an over-indulgent culture such as ours, we are not much of a danger to the enemy. We have little appetite for God, because we are so full of everything else. We begin to think of ourselves as God. We keep wanting more, until ultimately we want God’s place. But rather than wanting to be God or have his power, the object of our desire should be to be like God in his character — his goodness, love, mercy, unselfishness and humility. One of the reasons that we would like to be God is so that we could always get our way. The other is so that we could get everything we want. “There are two tragedies in life,” Oscar Wilde reminded us. “One is not getting what you want. The other is getting it.”
Rodney J. Buchanan
February 1, 2004
Mulberry St. UMC
Mt. Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
Me Almighty
Questions for February 1, 2004
1. Have you ever thought of what you would do if you were God? What ideas have occurred to you about what you would do?
2. Have you ever thought that God should have done something differently? What was it?
3. Has there been a time that after a difficult situation was over that you realized God knew what he was doing — even though you had questions as you went through it?
4. Why do people become angry with God and criticize the way he does things?
5. Read Genesis 3:4-5. How is this the same temptation Satan still uses today? Why is it so enticing?
6. What are the things that make being God extremely complicated?
7. Why do people want to be God rather than to be like him in character?
8. What difference would it make if people desired God’s character as much as they want God’s power?
9. How do people try to manipulate God?
10. Read Job 38:2-4. How would you respond if God confronted you as he did Job?
