GOD's Greatness
It's Thursday again, so I am writing another blog about what GOD has been showing me recently about Himself. This is in no way the totality or even a representation of my view of GOD's greatness, just something I have been thinking about lately and it has to do with All Things New as well.
Have you ever been a part of something great, maybe a team or a group of people, and realized that if you were not there nothing different would have happened...Basically you had nothing to do with the greatness, but you were just along for the ride. It is a humbling thing.
For whatever reason, we too often forget that about GOD. His greatness exists no matter what we are doing, and we can neither add nor subtract from the glory and greatness of GOD. He does not need us. Anything great that He is doing in the world, He could do with us or without us.
That is such a humbling thought. If I can be honest and somewhat transparent, there have been times when I have thought about and reflected on All Things New and bought into the idea that GOD and these kids were lucky that we were there. Like GOD was lost about how He was going to care of these kids and then all of a sudden...There we were. I know...Sad.
This is one of the most difficult things about GOD's greatness...He does not need us. If we had not stepped up for the kids, there are literally billions of other people that could have done it, and GOD could have used any of them.
I am not downplaying the importance of faithful living, I am pointing out that we, far too often, downplay the greatness of GOD and overestimate the value of ourselves. We put things on our own shoulders and try to solve things with our own wisdom and intelligence. We have the all-powerful GOD of the universe in our corner and we live our lives ignoring Him. We believe that we are indispensable in the world and that GOD desperately needs us.
The thing is, GOD is infinite. Did you know, in our physical world, there is no such thing as an actual infinite. There are some ideas of mathematical infinites like the reason you cannot score a touchdown with penalties is because, technically, you can just keep moving halfway closer to the goal without ever actually getting there. Some people say that numbers are infinite, but if that were true, it would seem like you would have half as many odd numbers as total numbers, but if they are infinite you have to have the same of each. Infinity is a difficult thing to think about and an impossible thing to understand.
The point of that last paragraph is that GOD is THE Infinite Being. We are eternal beings in that, from the time we are born we will live forever (either with GOD or separated from Him). That is not infinite. GOD never started and He will never come to an end. He just is.
Let me bring all of this around...GOD Does Not Need Us! But that is not the end:
- GOD WANTS US!
Think about what that means. In GOD's greatness, He needs absolutely nothing. He fellowships completely and perfectly with Himself, He is all-powerful, and He has anything and everything He wants at His fingertips. But in the greatness that is GOD, He desires a relationship with us. He wants us.
The journey we are on with All Things New, and the one that you are on in whatever other ministry GOD has called you to...He does not need you for that ministry to be successful. But He does want you. He wants you to experience what it is like to struggle for Him, be successful with Him, and ultimately grow closer to Him through the ministry He has blessed you with.
Just the other day, Elijah "helped" me mount our television to our wall. I let him hold the screwdriver and touch some of the supplies. Guess what...I did not need Elijah's help. He actually just really got in the way and probably turned a 20-minute job into a 40-minute job by the time it was over. The same thing happened when Apolon, Woodly, and Kervinson decided to help me assemble a crib in Haiti.
I did not need Elijah's help in the slightest...But I sure did want it. To see his mind focus on something and his gears start turning, I love those times with him and Sophie and Zeke too. I did not need Apolon, Woodly, and Kervinson's help either, but it was a very memorable experience and they were as proud as I have ever seen them when the job was complete.
GOD does not need you. GOD certainly does not need me. In fact, we definitely get in His way more often than not, and it takes way longer to complete a task with us bumbling around when GOD could be finished in no time. That is a hard fact to digest and it is a humbling viewpoint of who we are in light of who GOD is.
There is only one explanation that makes this humbling fact one of the best things in the world. In GOD's greatness and infinite character, He desires a relationship with each one of us...He wants us. He wants me, He wants you. He has no need of you, but He loves you so much He would rather wait and patiently walk with you, bumbling through the very things He could do with His eyes closed just to get to fellowship with you.
GOD is great...And He wants you, He desires you!