THANKS FOR NUTHIN’

YOU ARE ARGUING WITH…WHO?

He was screaming at the ceiling as he paced the room waving his arms wildly. 

It was one of those ugly arguments. The gloves were off, there was no more room for patience, he was done. 

Done!

“You never listen! You don’t really love me! I’m not that important to you, am I?”

His opponent in the argument was silent. 

I mean, the guy had every reason to be angry. He had lost several siblings, one of his own children had passed and he is recently divorced from his wife of several years. All this in the course of 18 months.

I was sitting off in the corner watching the argument. I had been expecting this for sometime. Frankly, I understood, it certainly seemed he was badly handled. That’s not to say I agreed with him. My own rough patch helped me to manage my arguments. And the interesting thing is, my friend and I were arguing with the same person.

God.

He was struggling with his faith when he pointedly asked me, “And the Bible says to be thankful for everything? Yeah, I think I’ll pass.”

I just nodded. I got it. In my dark times, I found it tough to say, “Hey thanks for making it worse. Losing that job was a real shot in the arm.”

And by the way, it’s cold comfort to say cliches like, “His ways are mysterious.” or “He knows your pain.” or and this is one of my favorites, “He hasn’t abandoned you.”

So, are you to sit in silence and just take it like Keven Bacon in “Animal House”, “Thank you sir, my I have another.”

I don’t think so. 

1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “Give thanks IN everything” not FOR everything. Big difference. 

The horrific losses sustained by the title character in the Book of Job, shows us that we can have imperfect conversations with our Creator and not fear being struck by lightning or the plague.

The world and its history is full of people who were blindsided by unimaginable tragedy and did the easy thing by walking away from God. 

A few years back I was a Faith Based Director at a nursing home. As I walked down the hall, a woman darted from her room to walk beside me. Turning to face me as we walked she said in a sneering voice, “You’re that new chaplain guy, aren’t ya?”

Not stopping, I said, “Yes, I am. How can I help you?”

“Nothin’. I want nothin’ from you. Don’t pray for me. Don’t knock on my door, don’t sing your hymns near my door and don’t come in my room when I’m dying and read words over me.”

I stopped and turned to her and asked, “What has turned you away from God that you’re so angry?”

She got in my space and hissed, “My parents were missionaries to India when I was a kid. They dragged me all over that Third World toilet for their god. I was miserable having to grow up in mud shacks and those stupid people.”

I looked at her for a moment, turned to walk away and said, “As you wish.” 

Both of these people were angry at God. But one was having a conversation with Him and the other refused to talk at all. 

Job had friends or “Comforters” as we call them. They didn’t help, but they showed us that job’s messy prayer is better than a perfect theological posture that never bends down to help others. 

My friend eventually calmed down. It took a while. Months as a matter of fact. I checked in with him from time to time to see how the conversation was going. All I can say was, it was progressing. Sometimes forward, sometimes not. You know, a process. 

Like Grief. 

Finally, am I saying that it’s okay to yell at God? Well, is it good to yell at your spouse, or your parents or children? 

No. but it is human. I believe God would rather we have the tough conversations, bring Him our anger, fears, loss, grief and unbelief rather than turn away and write off your belief in Him as a loss. 

You’ll ask for forgiveness. You always do when you work at relationships.

And, yeah, He’ll forgive.

I’m John Chester.

Look up my show, The John Chester show , here: https://www.obbmnetwork.tv/series/the-john-chester-show-207845

Thanks for reading.