One of the little known facts about me is that when I was growing up, I played the lead in Tom Sawyer. It’s kinda funny to think of a little Italian Tom (-; Actually, one of the girls that played Becky Thatcher in the play became my very first girlfriend. We started dating on a Friday night and she broke up with me that next Monday…shortest relationship ever. The wound is still deep hehehehe. I had a bunch of solos in the play and one in particular stands out to me. The name of the song is, “If’n I was God.” You can check out the lyrics here if you like.

The song starts off with, “If’n I was God Well, just for spite, I wouldn’t set the sun at night, Till everyone was treated right, By everyone else they see.” The sentiment that Tom expresses in the song is a fairly common one. When I think about God and I look at the way the world is, I sometimes can’t help but think he should do some stuff differently.

We are working through Psalms and today we are on Psalm 10. David expresses a similar thought when he kicks off this psalm. He says in verse 1, “Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” It’s a completely normal thought. If God is both good and powerful, it’s easy to think that there really shouldn’t be all this trouble and heartache in the world. I’m not going to try and wrestle down the problem of pain and suffering, but it’s a problem that theologians have been grappling with for centuries. If you want to read a really good book on this subject, check out C.S. Lewis’s Problem of Pain here. 

The bottom line is that God is so much greater than we understand. We have certain concepts of justice and love, but you don’t have to be a theologian to surmise that God’s understanding and definition of these concepts far surpasses our own. Even the brightest among us still see through a very human and therefore finite lens. In order to walk by faith, we must, in some ways, posture ourselves as blind men and women. A blind man knows that he can’t see and seeks his guidance from those who can. There is a necessary humility that accompanies this seeking that all of us would do well to consider. There are areas of our lives where we are helplessly blind. The most damaging thing that we can do in these areas is act as though we can see. If a blind man refuses to acknowledge his blindness, he will get himself and others hurt in the process. Can you imagine?! As ridiculous as that sounds, this is what many of us do. By taking our limited concepts of truth and theology so seriously, we argue ourselves and others into positions where we can no longer hear or experience God. Living a life of faith does not mean shutting our minds off, but it does mean understanding the significant limitations of our intellectual capacity. This is not easy for most to accept, but it is absolutely essential.