Strung Out
Upon the fine art of Divine string yanking.
When troubled, I am often counseled by a friend that I shouldn't worry, that my problems are in God's hands, and that He'll make things right.
Why do people think that this will make anyone feel better? I don't understand why people are comforted by thinking that some all-powerful being controls everything. If our every action is controlled by God, we would be nothing more than puppets on the wrong end of His string. Why does that idea comfort people? There are some horrifying things in this world. If God is in complete minute control of all that, He would have to be a heartless creature, getting His jollies by causing pain, creating hardship, deploying strife, and organizing suffering.
And we're all supposed to worship Him while He's yanking us around? Now that is truly narcissistic.
This idea, that God is little more than a sociopathic puppet-master, angers me. If God is pulling my strings, He's yanking pretty damn hard. What would be His reason for doing so? I haven't done anything to Him; this couldn't be about revenge. And I can't believe that this is meant to teach me a lesson; I would learn nothing by being yanked about by Him when I'm not making decisions for myself. So if the string theory is correct, He's yanking people around for the sport of it. Which would make Him an ass.
Why would anyone want to believe that God is a heartless, narcissistic, sociopathic, ass? I have yet to understand why people are comforted by thinking that such a God is on the business end of their string.
When troubled, I am often counseled by a friend that I shouldn't worry, that my problems are in God's hands, and that He'll make things right.
Why do people think that this will make anyone feel better? I don't understand why people are comforted by thinking that some all-powerful being controls everything. If our every action is controlled by God, we would be nothing more than puppets on the wrong end of His string. Why does that idea comfort people? There are some horrifying things in this world. If God is in complete minute control of all that, He would have to be a heartless creature, getting His jollies by causing pain, creating hardship, deploying strife, and organizing suffering.
And we're all supposed to worship Him while He's yanking us around? Now that is truly narcissistic.
This idea, that God is little more than a sociopathic puppet-master, angers me. If God is pulling my strings, He's yanking pretty damn hard. What would be His reason for doing so? I haven't done anything to Him; this couldn't be about revenge. And I can't believe that this is meant to teach me a lesson; I would learn nothing by being yanked about by Him when I'm not making decisions for myself. So if the string theory is correct, He's yanking people around for the sport of it. Which would make Him an ass.
Why would anyone want to believe that God is a heartless, narcissistic, sociopathic, ass? I have yet to understand why people are comforted by thinking that such a God is on the business end of their string.
4 Comments:
At 2/16/2006 11:55 AM,
Cameron said…
Jan,
You've hit on what I htink can be a complicated topic. I don't know that I can help at all, but I'll try :)
Basically, the saying that "Don't worry, God is with you," is supposed to be comforting in the fact that you don't need to face your trials alone. You have someone with you that loves you and wants to help you. However, that does not mean God will do whatever needs to be done for you. You have your free agency. God won't force you to do anything (that would be Calvinistic predestination I think), nor does He micromanage. Think of Him rather as a parent, the best parent, the perfect parent. He knows you need to learn, and that's one reason we have trials. We often bring upon ourselves the trials as well (though not always). I believe God is there to help us through those trials if we let him, but we have to let him in the door, so-to-speak. Everyone goes through frustrations, confusion, anger, and many other imperfections, but the idea is to become a little better each day through our struggle and with the aid of God.
In Corinthians, in the Bible, there is a verse that says we won't be tempted above that which we are able to bear. I think tempted is synonymous with tested here and I also think this implies that we'll be able to handle what we're going through as long as we put our faith and trust in God, _and_ do our part. We aren't here to sit around and let God do our work for us.
Anyway, this is my opinion. :)
< /end sermon>
At 2/16/2006 2:03 PM,
Jan said…
Cameron,
Exactly. I don't believe that God yanks us around. I just don't understand why others find comfort in believing that He does. And the counsel from my friend was exactly that: Don't worry because God will solve your problems for you because he is in control. I can't accept that at all. And I don't understand why that idea comforts people.
At 2/16/2006 2:40 PM,
Anonymous said…
I no longer take comfort in the idea that it is even about being tested. There is a serious lack of parity in trials. It is little, actually no comfort to a woman being beaten or a child being molested that God is on their side. - Kismet
At 3/03/2006 1:43 AM,
The Good St. Agnes said…
I totally agree. When people tell me that it makes me want to punch them in the face. It also annoys me because I remember being little and being totally scared of Jesus because people would always say, "Jesus is in control" and "Jesus is always watching you." I kept wondering, who is this guy? Why is He always watching and if He's in control why is my life crap?
I'm actually still having problems coming to grips with a nice Jesus idea. I can't even handle the full 3 hour block anymore. It usually just depresses me because all these people get up and talk about how blessed they are and how wonderful their lives are and I'm sitting there thinking, hmm, I tried to kill myself 2 times last week, guess I missed out on something.
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