Speaking for God

I don’t have the time or energy to try and sugar-coat this idea into a tactful word picture, so I’ll just cut to the chase:  I’m getting really tired of all of the current religious leaders who claim to be speaking for God.  Now don’t get me wrong – I know that God still speaks to us loud and clear.  I heard Him just the other day when my two-year-old smiled at me.  But it seems that some “high-profile” Christians are disguising their personal opinions in the magic words “God told me this” as a way of making their soapboxes just a little higher than everyone else’s. 

School shootings, 9-11, Hurricane Katrina – no matter what the national tragedy, the ink is not even dry on the AP release before so-called religious leaders have stepped up to the mic to reveal what “God is trying to tell us.”  I believe that grief is a God-given process that humans need to go through so that we don’t go insane.  And many times it is only after the grief that we can find the meaning.  If someone close to me passed away, would it be appropriate moments later for a minister to sidle up to me and say “Now here’s what God is trying to tell you through this tragedy”?

There are almost as many self-proclaimed, modern-day prophets on Christian television as there are bad wigs.  The true prophets that I’ve read about (in that book where God really does some talking) were more about weeping for the sins of the nations and humbly proclaiming God’s truth with fear and trembling than they were about saying “Now here’s whatcha need to do and here’s my book.”  It almost disgusts me to relive this, but shortly after 9-11 I heard a lady on TV actually share this “word from the Lord”:  The airlines that went down were American and United, so God was trying to say that America needs to be united. That is so horrible on so many different levels, I don’t even know how to comment on it.  And yet I’m sure there were spiritually hurting people out in TV-land that soaked it up and sent her money to support further “prophesying.”

I will go out on a limb and say one thing that I think God might say to us today.  And mind you, I’m not saying he spoke this to me – it’s more of a hunch:  “Stop being careless when it comes to speaking for me.  Take down all of those ‘Don’t make me come down there’ billboards.  And in times of national tragedy, give people time to react to what’s happened before you start yelling in their ear.”

I think when it comes to hearing from God, I’m going to turn off the television, pray, and open up the word of God.  Jesus talked about this Comforter who would help me understand and make sense of it all – I’m pretty sure that’s the best place to “tune in” and listen.   

Comments

[Stephen Claybrook]

Hi, Carey. Landed here from a link from Brett Smith's blog. I enjoyed reading your musings. CC is well and I'm sure will say hi once I tell her I was here. Blessings...

[Jerry Woods]

from your first posts I thought you had found a new "costume", but I loved this post. Now, don't stop. He knows who you will be in the morning
J

[jennywhit]

Carey, I swear. . .reading these posts makes me want to make an all-call announcement in the Commons with those little yellow phones stating, "The van to Perkins restaurant is in the circle." Then, I want a bunch of us to go to Perkins, stay up all night, pretend we're studying, and talk about this kind of stuff with the advantage of our age and experience. And, eat, of course. No, really, I don't think a van came to the circle at Union for Perkins, but many vans for many purposes did come to the circle. Annnnnnd, I'm done.

[BS]

Dang it! To have Carey's blather and Jennifer's commentary is WAY too good for me.