Trying to Make God Look Good

One of the things that become clear when you read it is that the bible never tries to defend God or make Him better than He is or even to prove that He is there. It's basically a collection of writings over hundreds of years that collectively says "This is God's story."

So why is it that Christians often feel like they have to be "spin doctors" for God?

A few weeks ago some churches in Australia put up signs that said "God loves Osama". It's true, it's shocking, and it may offend some people.

What surprised me was that my initial reaction to these signs, echoed by the public reaction of many christian spokespeople, was that the signs were a bit over the top, even inappropriate. Then I thought, "Hold on... that's exactly what the bible teaches us." This is especially when we consider that the signs had as a kind of footnote "Love your enemies."

I'm finding that as I talk to some pastors, they need to make God look good. I don't want to get too specific because I don't want to make this about particular people or incidents. What I'm thinking about is those times when there is a tragedy or a disaster and rather than focus on the very real pain of the people involved they want to say "But God is doing awesome things and 50 people got saved at the funeral and 200 AIDS patients were healed at the wake." (OK I admit I'm being a little ridiculous here but you know the kind of thing I mean.)

It's as if we want to avoid thinking about the bad stuff so we focus on the collateral good stuff that happens out of the bad.

We love Romans 8:28, "We know that in all things God works together for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." But we skip over Romans 8:18 which says, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us."

We love to say we are overcomers, even "more than conquerors" as Paul says in Romans 8:37. But we don't want to think about the fact that to be an overcomer or a conqueror, there is something to overcome! Paul says, in that same troubling chapter: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?" (8:36).

The bible is realistic... bad stuff happens and often we can't see any reason for it. Yes even Christians go through tough times so get used to it. God doesn't protect us from suffering, but He does promise to go through it with us.

When pastors do this kind of thing they put pressure on their people to look better than they really are, to be a "good witness" triumphing over adversity. Christians experience grief when a child dies, just like anyone else. Christians get angry when life goes against them, just like anyone else.

Getting a relationship with God doesn't insulate you from human emotions- in fact I have a hunch that the followers of Jesus might just experience emotions more deeply than others.

Let's not try to be image doctors for God. He is who He is and He doesn't need His people to apologise for Him or to put a gloss on things for Him. Actually He's big enough to look after Himself. We do need to give a reason for the hope that we have in Christ, but that doesn't mean that we pretend that everything is better than it really is!

Jesus described Himself as the Light- but He also described himself as the Truth.

Be blessed

Keith