How to Find Selfless Joy in a Me-First World by Leslie Vernick

Author:Leslie Vernick [Vernick, Leslie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-79683-7
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2011-05-25T00:00:00+00:00

The Loving-Kindness of God

Most people picture God mighty and powerful. We acquiesce that his ways might be a bit beyond our human finite understanding. Indeed, if he is truly God, they must be, or we would be his equal. The greatest mystery of all, the thing that pierces our pride like a pin bursts a boil, is God’s loving-kindness toward sinful human beings.

Today we live in a feel-good culture. We buy tapes that give us a boost to our low self-esteem. We want people to tell us things that make us feel good about ourselves, and we avoid those who might lead us to feel guilty about something. We believe material things will satisfy our inner hunger; temporarily, they might, but never for very long. Soon the hunger returns, and we seek more affirmation, the next acquisition or a new thrill, hoping to find satisfaction for the emptiness in our souls.

When I was a child, I always preferred to eat candy instead of meals (I still tend toward that weakness). It tasted so much better. Left to my own wisdom, I would have consumed candy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I ate so many sweets between meals that I was not usually hungry for regular food. Today we live in a candy-coated world where we want everything to taste good and go down easy. We don’t like it when someone does something that interferes with what we think we need. God is supposed to make us feel good. When he doesn’t, then we have no use for him.

God’s loving-kindness is radically different from our understanding of love these days. Genuine love doesn’t indulge or pacify. Real love helps; true love heals. It is because of his love for us that he tells us the truth about our condition and what we need to find life. Even if I don’t like the bad news that I will get sick if I eat only candy every day, it is the truth. It is good for me to know the truth so that I can repent and change, lest I continue down the path of destruction. God warns us that disaster is ahead if we don’t change our way of thinking and living. We often see God’s judgment as a supreme act of unkindness. We view God as a mean-spirited Deity who wants to make us upset or afraid. But God’s judgment pronounces loving truth. It accurately diagnoses our condition and shows us how to find healing. It is never kind to lie to someone, even if it does make them temporarily feel better.

Last year my mother was diagnosed with cancer. Though terrible news, we were relieved to finally get that diagnosis. For months her doctors had been telling her she just had bronchitis. She would get better, not to worry. The news that she only had bronchitis made her feel better in the short term, but her actual condition worsened. Only when she got an accurate diagnosis could she receive the appropriate treatment that could relieve her discomfort and improve the quality of her life.

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