One of the questions that can easily stop us in our tracks as evangelists is: “If God is good, why does everything around me seem wrong?” We don’t know how to answer, so we flee from the conversation or mumble something that sounds churchy, but in all honesty, that question is intimidating because we don’t exactly know how to answer it, right?
How about this?
Imagine that the world is a valley, and granted, it’s a mess. Everyone is scrambling to define their place and achieve something, all too often at the expense of others. Sprinkled throughout are the Christians, supposedly understanding the way they are to act, leaving behind the urge to prove something and instead, building life rafts. Everyone else laughs at them, not unlike those who laughed at Noah, not seeing the need for their work, not seeing the value of their preparation.
What they haven’t seen, but the Christians have, is the dam at the top of the cliff. It is big and strong, and Christians know that means it holds back a great deal of powerful water. One shift and the valley will be forever changed. Not erased, but filled with a new way of existence. The earth-bound constructions and defined boundaries will cease to rule. The water will take every nook and cranny for itself, as is its nature. It will clean away the dirt and debris in its rush by, leaving only fresh water glittering in clear light.
Christians know the better focus is to prepare for the coming flood and inform as many people as possible. They do so by showing them the power of water in small ways, trying to raise awareness of its importance and power so that others realize the need to be ready and the value of being part of this new way.
Why is the valley still messed up? Because the water waits, letting those in the valley have a chance to choose its way.
In the same way, God is good, God is love, and he is showing us this every day by not flooding in and filling the whole world with himself…not yet. The results would be great for those who are ready, and disastrous for everyone else, so he waits because he loves them too. As long as people have freedom of choice in how they live, their choices will inevitably have consequences. Often those consequences affect those around them, so that the circumstances experienced in the world are not God’s doing, because he holds himself back and lets us choose. The very fact that we see the brokenness and pain of the world is why we see clearly the need for his love and power, and since we can recognize his love in the waiting, we allow him to first flood us, producing in us the changes that happen when his power comes. Not force, not demands, not rules, but real transformation. This is the message of the good news - the power of love to change the world by its presence. This is what we carry to a world still in need of it, the example of what can be.
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.”