Never Lonely

At the recommendation of my spiritual director, I've been working through Dallas Willard's book Hearing God:  Developing a Conversational Relationship with God as part of my personal devotional time lately.  Today, I came across the following questions in the book.

"Have you known people who were so close to God that they were never lonely?  What do you think of the prospects of such a relationship for you?"

This really made me stop and think.  I've asked a lot of questions about loneliness over the past nine months.  Having left all of my deep relationships in the US and moved into a new country and culture, loneliness has been a struggle at times.  So I started to reflect...

Of course, God created us to be in community.  While we can sing, "All of You is more than enough for all of me," we don't totally mean it in a literal sense.  God did create us with a need for other people.  Even with that fact established, though, many of us struggle with loneliness even while we are IN community!

• Sometimes no one will answer the phone or respond to a text, and not a soul is on Facebook chat--and just in an hour or so of isolation, we feel lonely.
• For singles, we can be blessed with the most incredible relationships in the world and yet give in to loneliness for a significant other.
• In the context of community, we can still battle loneliness when we are not in close proximity to those who know and understand us best.

So what does our loneliness say about our relationship with God?

1.  Feelings lie.  Just having a feeling of loneliness doesn't mean my relationship with God is on the rocks.  Let's not take this to an extreme.  However, perhaps a life characterised by loneliness would be an indication of a spiritual need.

2.  Maybe loneliness is a God-given reminder of our need for communion with HIM. The truth is, only God knows and understands us perfectly. Only He is always available and always present.  He can always "answer the phone" to listen to our needs or "give us a text" through His Word in response to our cries.  He is the most faithful Friend.  At any point that human relationships are unsatisfying, we should be reminded that our sole satisfaction MUST indeed come from our relationship with God.  He desires for us to live in His presence--if we do, we are never alone.

So have I ever known someone who was so close to God that they were never lonely?  I'm not sure... Do I want to be the kind of person who is so close to God that my life is marked by satisfaction and contentment through my relationship with Him?  Absolutely.  Anyone have some thoughts on how to progress toward that end?  I'd love to read them.

Does God Change His Mind?

 A church recently asked me to share with them my thoughts on the question, "Does God change His mind?"  After writing my response, I thought I would share it here as well in case anyone is interested.  I'd love to hear your thoughts in response!  Please disagree with me if you like! :)
 1. If we take the narratives of Scripture "literally," then the answer is yes. God is said to have "repented" or "changed His mind" in several places in Scripture. For example... when Abraham "bargains" with God about whether or not He will destroy Sodom, He makes it clear that He would change His mind based on Abraham's stipulations; when the Ninevites repent after Jonah's message, God relents from destroying their city as He had proclaimed that He would do.

2. God's foreknowledge makes this tricky... If we believe God knows everything, even the future (though without determining the future since He has given mankind free will), then God changing His mind becomes a bit problematic. If God already knew, for example, that the Ninevites would repent and He would then "change His mind," is this really God changing His mind??? Some Christians have dealt with this by saying that God actually chooses to limit His own future knowledge by giving us free will, that He chooses not to know what we will decide and therefore is actually able to change His own mind based on what we decide. (This is part of a belief system called "open theism"--it is a very new idea, however, and most of orthodox Christianity has denied its possibility). Most of us, however, choose to live in the tension that, yes, God knows what will happen and yet has given us totally free will. Thus, God is "practically" changing His mind in response to human decision, but He is "technically" not changing His mind since He already knew what we would do and how He would respond. (Does your brain hurt yet? lol)

3. God's promises are trustworthy. God does not flippantly change His mind in that He does not revoke His promises. Thus, Numbers 23:9 reads, "God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?" In this sense, no, God does not "change His mind."

4. I believe the best way to approach this whole topic is that (a) God is truly and personally relational, meaning that He actually responds to us (our prayers, our decisions, etc.) in a perfect yet relational way. (b) The Scriptures about God changing His mind highlight this real interaction in a way our human minds can comprehend. They are meant "pedagogically," meaning they intend to teach us about the reality of our interactions with God, rather than "scientifically," meaning they are a technical representation of how God works in His inner mind--His psychology. (c) The mystery of God's perfect knowledge makes it hard for us to systematize what it means for God to "change His mind," and that's ok. The point, again, is that how we live and interact with God actually affects the way He works in the world.

Hope that helps rather than confuses!