Good morning friends and family. Buckle up – this one might be a little raw…
I know who I am and what I feel. I also know when I’ve been wounded, for many times, I am battered, bloodied, and bruised after the incident. I know when I have wounded that need to be treated.
However, there are some Christians who think declaring you’ve been hurt is a sign of weakness, or even worse, tell you that your wounds are God’s will, and that you should be grateful for them. I’ve heard position statements like “This might be God’s way of testing your faithfulness.”
I call bull.
Why in the world would a God, who supposedly is love in all forms, purposely allow someone to be hurt? Why would that God, who many of us (me included) call “Father” let his children purposely fall into danger?
Why would God allow someone to have issues that strain their mental wellness? Why would God (and by extension Jesus) allow women to stay in abusive relationships? A better question might be DOES God support abuse?
I think not, and here’s why: If Jesus, who many of us believe is God the Son, “came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10), why would He (masculine pronoun purposely presented) then do something that contradicts that mission?
It’s because we have ascribed the human parental behavior to spiritual beings, which one cannot and should not do. A parent says things like “This will hurt you more than it hurts me”, “I’m doing this for your own good”, or my favorite, “You’ll learn the next time”. We put people’s flawed behavior on the ones we say love us unconditionally, and that by letting us “learn a lesson”, we’ll be better for it.
I disagree. And I get to, because it’s my faith walk. I’m encouraging you to think about why you believe what you believe, and if it works for you, then GREAT! However, ascribing abusive attributes to the one I call Abba? That no longer makes sense to me, and I have let that position go. I encourage you to do the same. #GDOP
Rev. Guy S. Johnson 