Perhaps We Expect Too Much of God
A sermon
I am neither a theologian nor a philosopher. I am not even a Christian, really—or if I am, I am not a very good one. As such, I cannot speak with any authority on theological topics. If you consider yourself a Christian, you would do well to treat this as nothing more than what it is—a wayward thought—and click away now.
I think we expect too much of God. He is supposed to be all-seeing, all-knowing, and all-powerful—and thus should be able to cure cancer, prevent disasters, feed the hungry, and help me with my taxes (all in a day’s work). This is quite the expectation. Even for an omnipotent god, I have to imagine that, without a good team of subcontractors to shoulder some of the burden, such expectations must get overwhelming.
Consider the work of a mother. Generally speaking, a mother is expected to cook, clean, work, organise appointments and school drop-offs, tend to her children’s emotional needs, and somehow also maintain her own sanity. Most days she will be pulled in every direction, and inevitably, she will have some ‘bad days’. No mother is perfect.
The wise husband knows that his wife cannot do it alone. He knows that he needs to do his fair share, and perhaps even recruit the children to help out, in order to maintain a happy home. But children, unwise in the ways of parenting, always demand more. They ask and ask and ask and rarely lift a finger to help themselves, expecting—as if by some miracle—to have everything exactly as they want it.
We have become like the demanding children. We expect so much from God, hold him to such an impossible standard, that not even God himself can measure up. Indeed, we spent centuries imagining ever-more absurd and difficult tasks for God to fail at (‘can God create a stone so heavy that even he can’t lift it?’) that eventually he did—and then, like a son leaving his mother to waste away in a retirement home, we gave up on him. It is a form of black and white thinking, a false dichotomy. Either God proves himself by doing everything we think he should, or he does not exist.
We should be more like the wise husband. The wise husband acknowledges his wife’s skill and ingenuity—he believes in her—but he is not so foolish that he expects her to do it all on her own. In the same way, we should not expect God to do everything for us. After all, why should God be saddled with all the busywork? Are we so incapable? It seems to me that, in creating humans, God chose to delegate some of his work to us. The ‘problem of evil’ is only a problem if we are unable or unwilling to implement God's plan ourselves.
None of this is to say that we should expect little of God. He is, after all, God. But our expectations need to be tempered by reality. I think it is reasonable to presume that God's limits remain within the bounds of the possible.
At least, that is what I might say if I were a Christian.
damn. that was an incredible piece of writing.