I can't stop thinking about this

Once again, Jon Acuff rocked my world. I can't stop thinking about this post, or two quotes I'll highlight:

http://stuffchristianslike.net/2009/04/532-arguing-about-why-bad-things-happen-to-good-people/comment-page-1/

"Here is the question I felt like God asked me:

'Do I have the right to crack the vessel if breaking it is the fastest way to share with the world what I have poured into it?' "

You may have to read that again. Or more.

And here's the paragraph that I've tried to express {in my own words} over the last few months as friends and I have encountered things happening in our lives and in the lives of ones that we love:

"The question is not, 'Can I trust a God that allows bad things to happen to good people?' Although that’s tempting to get stuck on. Sometimes when we say, 'How can I serve a God that would allow bad things to happen,' we miss what we might be really saying. I think what we mean is, 'I could only serve a God that is good or loving according to my own personal definition of what those words mean.' But that’s kind of terrifying to me. I don’t want to worship a God who’s power is limited to my ability to understand it or who’s goodness is limited to my ability to define it. I get 'good' and 'bad' wrong all the time."


I've said it over and over again. I don't want to serve a God I can understand or make sense of. Then He wouldn't be God. I always think of Isaiah 55:8-9


For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.


I like that. It gives me peace. I'm glad I don't always understand what's going on.