Telling God What You Really Think

Greetings All,

Tonight at church we begin a two week discussion around the book The Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore.  The sub-text of the title is "A modern-day slave, an international art dealer, and the unlikely woman who bound them together," and it succinctly captures the gist of the book.  It revolves around the relationships of Ron, Debbie and Denver and how God can work transformation through those relationships when they are rooted in His love.  The book is full of profound moments and pieces of wisdom, especially from Debbie and Denver, but I wanted to share one with y'all this morning to get you excited about tonight's discussion.  Let's begin with a quote from the book.  It comes from a Denver chapter where he is telling about his time at Debbie's graveside after everyone else had left.

"After everbody went on to the house, I stayed up there with her, sittin' on a bale a' hay.  Sometimes I talked to God, askin' Him why.  Even though I'd had a word or two from Him about His purposes, and even though I'd delivered them words to Mr. Ron like He asked me to, that didn't mean I had to like it.  And I told Him I didn't like it.  That's the good thing 'bout God.  Since He can see right through your heart anyway, you can go on and tell Him what you really think."  From The Same Kind of Different As Me pgs. 192-193

Denver, like the rest of the family, is consumed with grief over Debbie's death.  He is hurting but he is trusting God.  He is trying to understand God's purpose and plan, but he is honest enough to admit that he doesn't like it. He is also bold enough to tell God that he doesn't like it because he figures God already knows how he is feeling so he might as well vocalize it. 

It is this simple, yet profound wisdom about God that so strikes me time and again as I read this book.  So often in life we get in those places of being consumed by the situations of life that have injured, paralyzed, demoralized and left us for broke.  We get angry at others, at life, at God and we want to express it but we are afraid to tell God that we don't like something that we think He has His hand in, so we don't.  So many of us have grown up with such a fear of God, that He will smite us for questioning, for doubting, for being angry,  that we are afraid to tell Him how we are really feeling.  We hold it in and it begins to smolder and fester and often times leads us to a place where we end up moving away from God. 

The irony in what we do is that God knows how we are feeling before we ever even thought about expressing it.  We don't tell Him, but He knows.  We keep it in and compound the hurt in our lives, because we shut Him out blocking His attempts at hope and healing.  We can really learn from Denver's wisdom here.  "Since He can see right through your heart anyway, you can go on and really telly him what you think."  God can handle it, He has big shoulders and a strong back and can handle anything our little mortal lives can throw at Him.  We can go ahead and express our hurt, our pain, our disappointment and confusion because He already knows it.  Our expressing it is not for His sake, so that He knows what is going on in our lives, it is for our sake.  Expressing our anger and frustration and hurt and being responded to with love, acceptance and grace instead of smiting and rejection begins a healing process in us that we all need.

We have just begun a new year; as we look forward to the things we hope to accomplish let us also look back.  Let us look back to those things we need healing from and let us not be afraid to tell God how we really feel so He can begin a healing process in each of us that will free us to pursue those goals for the new year with passion and complete abandonment to God.  Go ahead and tell Him what we really think, He can handle it.

Your brother in Christ,
Faron