A Divine Scandal (page 7)

This is when I must partially explain to you the title of this section - A Divine Scandal.  And I say partially because I am not fully aware of its meaning yet.  I am still in this mode of questioning and discovery.  You're just able to see where it all takes me.  Hopefully it is leading you to question and evaluate depths of your life you haven't touched since they first appeared.

So I don't get it, and I guess this is the scandalous part, but here we have a/The God of all you see around you (a.k.a. the Divine part of this equation) who is faithful to us no matter whether we are faithful to Him.  Now don’t lie to me when I assume “ummm...duh” is going through your mind right now.  Because, really, we would react by saying that this is no scandal of any sorts, it is Christian doctrine.  Yes, it is how we’re brought up: 

Step 1: We mess up.

Step 2: We attempt denying out mistake, but our gut reaction says otherwise: “No, you screwed up (place name here).

Step 3: We go to God because who else can we let know about this example of our imperfect-self?  It’s not like we’re doing this for reputation’s-sake.  We are genuine with our love for God.  Sometimes it’s just a little buried, you know?

Step 4: We basically say, “God forgive me” and somehow, even 24 years in the making, we’re still able to ask this in some unique way.  Let’s just say it how it is.  No matter the word choice, it’s still the same old tune.

Step 5: We go on with life.  God has forgiven us.  Wait, let me rephrase: God has forgiven us again.  And, oh, I think the word again is an understatement if we can be completely honest.

Step 6: Repeat process because you know you will unless you’re in denial.

I’m sure this is doctrine somewhere.  I bet it’s in the Bible.  My purpose at this point is not to show you where to find it in that book you have hiding out somewhere.  Instead, I want to tell you that this is scandalous.

Look at step six again. I hope you don’t just write off my oversimplification of life in the realm of belief and relentless pursuit after the Divine.  Come up with your own steps to describe the inevitable occurrence of sin, fallacy, evil, disobedience and whatever else proves to be the opposite of what God has called us to.  You know that Divine standard for a human being to attempt as hard as he can at meeting.

We are dealing with the Divine in the realm of humanity.  God knows this.  He sees step six.  And He is still faithful.

That, to me, is scandalous – A Divine Scandal, if you will.