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May 2 - May 2, 2020
God encourages positive, constructive, and wise actions and uses those when healing.
When Jesus says, “Your faith has made you well,” he’s saying, “You’ve cooperated with God’s healing love.” And when Matthew says Jesus “did not do many miracles (in Nazareth) because of their lack of faith” (Mt. 13:58), that’s saying, “Some people do not cooperate with God’s healing efforts.”
The girl who prays for her skin cancer to heal but frequently sunbathes unprotected isn’t cooperating with God. When we continually treat our bodies and our minds harmfully, we’re not expressing cooperative faith.
Negative events from the past also affect the present. God could not control them when they occurred. And God cannot singlehandedly eliminate their force in the present. Consequently, they can cause trauma.
God can’t overpower or bypass them, because God loves all creation, and this love is always uncontrolling.
But prayer alters circumstances in our bodies and world. It presents new opportunities for God to heal. Prayer opens up new possibilities for God’s love to make an actual difference.24 Some Healing Must Wait
God’s uncontrolling love extends beyond death. We continue living beyond the grave because God’s loving presence empowers continuing experience after our bodies die.
“How’s that belief workin’ for ya?”
“Instead of believing God is uninvolved,” the counselor continued, “perhaps we should believe God is always guiding but never dominating, always influencing but not manipulating.”
“I’d rather believe God can’t always heal,” she replied, “than believe God could heal but chooses not to!”
Reality: Our prayers alter the circumstances and may open up possibilities for God’s healing.
Sometimes healing occurs in this life. But sometimes factors and circumstances beyond our control prevent us from experiencing the healing God desires. Some healing must wait until the afterlife.
If good comes from suffering and God wants what’s good, is suffering God’s will?
God took what God didn’t want and squeezed good from it.
We can be thankful in our suffering, however. We can thank God for giving us courage and patience. We can thank God for being the source of all good. Even in pain, we can thank God for being the source of friendship, hope, breath, and more. Being thankful for the beauty and goodness we encounter — while being clear-eyed about the ugliness and evil — is crucial to living life well.
The word “for” in the quotation comes from the Greek word huper. The word often means “on behalf of” or “for the benefit of.”
To discipline is to teach, correct, or train. A good disciplinarian encourages learners to adopt better ways of living.
Good discipline does not mistreat, abuse, or humiliate. Helpful discipline uses nonviolent measures. Healthy discipline of children involves teaching them the negative consequences that come from unhealthy behavior. Good disciplinarians warn of the harm that comes from wrongdoing.
The discipline described in Hebrews is similar to the instruction from a fitness trainer teaching clients how to exercise, rest, and eat properly. These disciplinarians ask their disciples to give up temporary pleasures — laziness, late nights, or sweets — to get healthier. Giving up pleasures is, by definition, not pleasurable. But we undergo discipline for its rewards: increased health, happiness, and wholeness.
Rather than believe devastation and heartache are supernatural punishments, we should believe they’re the natural negative consequences of refusing to cooperate with God’s love.
God knows what makes life good. Our divine Friend calls us to act and live in ways that promote the good life. Love promotes well-being, and failure to love promotes ill-being. Refusing to cooperate with what makes life good leads to harm.
God works with creation to squeeze good from the evil God didn’t want in the first place.
Our cooperation can lead to something good.
this fifth belief. It says God invites us to cooperate with God’s work to promote healing, goodness, and love.
Steve Jobs I often think of Steve Jobs when I think about the idea God foreknows and predestines.
Neither the popular nor the theological meaning of “condescend” takes relational love as its starting point. Both prize independence over relationship. Both assume the superiority of distance.
To exist and to act, God doesn’t need us. When I say, “God needs us,” I assume God always loves. Always. And I assume, as the Apostle Paul puts it, “love never forces its own way” (1 Cor. 13:5). Never. Love doesn’t control, in the sense of being a sufficient cause. Therefore, it’s impossible for a loving God to control others.
God needs our love responses.
Like “synergy,” the words “cooperate” and “collaborate” describe God and creation working together. To “co-operate” means to operate together. To “co-laborate” means to labor together.
God works to squeeze good from the bad God didn’t want in the first place. And it emphasizes God’s loving presence in all situations.
We contribute, and what we do matters. We can all choose love, and God works with lovers to bring about good. That’s the synergy of love.
“If God needs me to co-labor with God’s loving plan, then the people around me literally need me to act. They need me to do what God wants done to bring about peace, harmony, justice, etc.”
Teresa of Avila penned a beautiful poem expressing this: Christ has no body but yours, No hands no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world, Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good, Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Cooperation makes things happen. Prayer can align us with God’s will while opening new avenues for God to work in us and the world.
As I pray, I imagine how I or others might cooperate with God for love to prosper. I ask God to inspire and inform me.
But this also means what we’ve done — good or bad — doesn’t ultimately matter.
When we and others cooperate, we enjoy well-being. When we do not, we suffer. Let’s call this the “relentless love” view of the afterlife.
What he calls “hell,” I call the natural negative consequences of choosing not to cooperate with God’s love.
God doesn’t punish those who refuse this loving relationship, but God can’t prevent the natural negative consequences that come from saying “no” to love.
Because God’s love is relentless, however, we have good reason to hope all creatures eventually cooperate with God.
After all, love always hopes and never gives up (1 Cor. 13:7)!
You may have intuited this way of thinking, but this may be the first articulation of your intuitions.
The principle of God’s uncontrolling love applies to protection too. God does work to protect, but protection is never unilateral. Creatures always play a role. As God loves moment by moment, creatures — human, animals, or other entities — may join with God to protect those in danger. Or the creaturely conditions may be conducive to keep us safe.
Understanding protection returns us to indispensable love synergy. God can’t protect alone. But God’s work to protect is effective when creation cooperates or the conditions are right.
We can be the means by which God shelters and shields the exposed. This may include protecting children from abuse or cultural forces that could tear them down.
God did not want the bad I suffered. That happened because people did not follow the path God wanted.”
In some moments, the loving best to which God calls us may be profound. Other times, the best we can muster is small: simply choosing to live another moment, as best we are able.
Many survivors have discovered the God of uncontrolling love is not blameworthy!
God is almighty as 1) the source of might for all creation (all-mighty), 2) the one who exerts mighty influence upon everyone and everything (all-mighty), and 3) the one mightier than all others (all-mighty). This might is all-ways expressed as uncontrolling love.
God heals, protects, redeems, saves, empowers, inspires, calls, creates, guides, sanctifies, persuades, transforms, and more — in loving relationship with creation.
