Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The most impacting paradigm shift I've experienced

This was originally a post I made on an old blog of mine called "God Said It Best", which turned into my senior speech at Grace Covenant Church, which turned into my original oratory speech in the NCFCA. Over the years (wow, it's literally been a couple years) since I originally wrote it, I have seen people both freed by their understanding of this message, as well as get really angry and fight against it with all their might. It's probably the most controversial of all the paradigm shifters I'm going to post about, but it's the biggest one with the most far-reaching impact. It will impact your understanding of who God is, who you are, and your place in God's plan.

The title of this message?

God Does NOT Care About Your Happiness.

Translation: By "not caring", I mean that when God (who is all-knowing, all-wise, and all-powerful) decides how He is going to arrange the circumstances in your life, your happiness is not a factor in His decisions. God's goal is not for you to be happy.

Old paradigm: "God wants me to be happy. He died on the cross because He couldn't stand the thought of living without me. If I had been the only one on earth, He still would have died for me."

You probably think that you don't view things through this paradigm, but chances are you probably do. This paradigm manifests itself in many different ways-from the miniscule, almost unnoticeable to the big and devastating.

The Truth: God did not die for you because you are special. You are special because God died for you. God is more concerned that you grow in character than He is about you feeling happy. Happiness is not a goal that God strives for, and neither should we. God's main goal is His glory, and when we strive for that goal, we experience joy and true happiness. Happiness is a byproduct, not a goal.

I'm surprised by the number of people who justify disobedience to God based on what they think will make them happy. "You have no clue what I've gone through/am going through", they say. "Surely God understands. The rules don't exactly apply in my situation."

Um, let me break it to you. God doesn't understand. His rules apply regardless of your situation. Show me one verse in the Bible where it says that God's goal is for you to be happy. No really, I challenge you to look. If you find it, I want to see it. We hear so much in church about how "God love you so much that if you had been the only one on earth, God would have died for you".

That's not in the Bible.

What is in the Bible is this: "God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the One who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."-Romans 3:25-26, emphasis mine.

Why did God let Jesus die on the cross? To have a restored relationship with us, yes. But I don't believe that was the primary purpose.

But wait! you say. What about Romans 5:8, where it says that "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us"?

Notice a word that is common between those two verses. Yes, God sent Jesus to die in our place because He loves us. I'm not arguing against that. What I am saying is that God's love for us was a secondary purpose. I very important secondary purpose, yes, but a secondary purpose nonetheless.

Did you find the word?

The word is demonstrates.

God didn't have to die for us. But He did because it brought Him glory. It demonstrated parts of His character-His justice (as Romans 3:25-26 says) as well as His love (Romans 5:8). Demonstrating His character through the cross brought glory to God.

I've had many people tell me that if I was the only one on earth, Christ would have died for me. I can't find it in the Bible. What I do find is verses that tell me that Christ's death brought glory to God. If I had been the only one on earth, and dying for me still brought God glory, I'm sure He would have done it. But if it didn't bring Him glory, I don't believe He would have.

I went off on a tangent about the cross because I wanted to point out something--God's primary goal. It's not to love us. Not to make us happy. It's to bring glory to Himself.

Christians today, especially American Christians, have gotten the wrong view that God's goal is to make humans happy. That God is some sort of "genie in a bottle" to grant us our wishes and make us comfortable. Nothing could be further from the truth.

So, in the grand scheme of things, what does bringing glory to God mean for us? The answer is found in Romans 8:29: For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

A lot of people use this verse to debate predestination, and miss the point. God's goal for Christians is clearly spelled out in this verse: conformity to the image of Christ. Happiness is a byproduct of pursuing conformity to Christ. Actually, let me take that back for a second.

"Happiness" is a pretty vague word. Often, "happiness" is used interchangeably with "joy", although the two mean very different things. Happiness is an emotion, while joy is a character quality. Anything can give us happiness, but only pursuing conformity to Christ can give us true joy.God gives us opportunities to develop Christlike character qualities. Sometimes (dare I say, oftentimes), that means that God arranges circumstances that will actually make us unhappy and uncomfortable.

However, if we take those opportunities to develop Christlike character, we will develop
joy, which is superior to happiness. As I said, happiness is an emotion. Thus it is fleeting. Joy, on the other hand, is a character quality, and thus is constant.

So, paradigm shift: Stop thinking that God cares about your happiness. He cares about your character. Put God in His rightful position. Pursue His goals, and you will find yourself truly joyful.

1 comment:

Heidi said...

Shaney, I stumbled across your blog and was thrilled to see your grasp of a very important truth, especially for one so young. I want to encourage you Godward, because He is obviously at work in your thinking! May the Lord continue to work in you and through you to impact the world for Christ! Grace-- Heidi Streetman