Bruce Almighty?

(click here to watch 2 minute clip of Bruce Almighty)

Bruce Almighty is was one of my favorite movies of the 90’s. It is a great parable (a story that teaches a lesson) of what it would be like if you got to play the role of God. One obvious lesson is that we wouldn’t do well playing the role of God. A second obvious lesson is that many of us believe that we can do a better job than what He is presently doing (or not doing). A not so obvious lesson that was hinted at near  the beginning of the movie is that there must be a better God.

There’s the story of a man was walking on a pitch black night when he fell over a cliff. On the way down, he managed to grab hold of a small tree sprouting out of the side of the precipice. Desperately he began to call out for help and a voice answered, “What do you want?” “I’m stuck down here holding on to a tree. I can’t hold on too much longer. Can you help me?” “Yes,” came the reply. “Who are you ?” the man asked. “I’m God,” replied the voice. “What do you want me to do?” asked the man. “Let go of the tree.” For a while there was silence. Then the man called out and said, “Is there anyone else up there?”

Even though God gave us His one and only Son who was beaten, mocked, crucified, and was resurrected – a lot of people are still looking for a God. Churchandculture.org tells us that there is something in the air these days that is different for those on a spiritual search; “It used be that people wanted proof of things like, reasons to believe God exists, reasons to believe that Jesus rose from the dead, and reasons to believe that the Bible is true. But lately the questions have changed. The questions now have to deal with what God is like. People don’t ask, ‘Is there a God?’ as much as ‘I’m not sure I like what I know about God?’ Especially the God of the Bible.'”

Some people see the God of Bible as angry, mean, and He loves to send people to hell. Others think that God is overreacting when it comes to divorce, homosexuality, sex before marriage, and cheating on our taxes. People today are having a difficult time relating to God of the Bible because he seems to not care and doesn’t really do anything. According to Bruce in the Bruce Almighty clip, God is just messing things up.

Many of us who follow Christ even wonder why God doesn’t just step in and makes things better than the way they are. When things don’t get better we think we need a better God – a  God who is better at meeting needs and answering our prayer. Whether you like the next thing I am about to write,  it is true of all of us.

All of us have certain expectations of God.

This is why we get so disappointed and angry with Him.

• We expect God to end suffering. (after all, He is a loving God isn’t He?)
• We expect God to lighten up on the “do’s and “dont’s” (after all, the road can’t be that narrow can it?)
• We expect God to answer all our questions  so that we don’t have any doubts or uncertainties. (after all, we certainly don’t need to worry more than we have to!)
• We expect God never to send any person to hell. (especially those people that we like).

He is capable to end suffering. He could get rid of the do’s an don’ts. He could and answer all  your questions so that you wouldn’t have any doubts or uncertainties. He could never send anyone to hell. If you honestly think about it if he did do those things we would become even more selfish and even more spiritually childish. If we were Bruce Almighty and God handed us his power for a day we have ideas of what we would do with the world:

• We would destroy ISIS
• We would end the rumor of war and war itself, hunger, murder, disease, poverty, rape, famine, jealousy, child abuse, spousal abuse, molestation, abortion, mental illness, cancer, evil, hell, and we could go on and on and on and on and on. We would definitely put the best president in office who would honestly be for the people.

Like Bruce Almighty we would eliminate anything bad because we need people to love God.  The bottom line is this – we won’t say it – nor would we want to admit it …. .”If I was God, things would be a whole lot different.”

This attitude is not new …. You can find it in the Bible.

This is the way one of the most famous person’s in the Bible started his journey. Thinking he could a better job.  He was very boastful and prideful when it came to life. His name was Peter.

Luke 5:1-11

“One day as Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the word of God.  2 He noticed two empty boats at the water’s edge, for the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets.  3 Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, …to push it out into the water. So he sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there.   4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish.”   5 “Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.”  6 And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear!  7 A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking.   8 When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Oh, Lord, please leave me — I’m too much of a sinner to be around you.”  9 For he was awestruck by the number of fish they had caught, as were the others with him.  10 His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed.

Jesus replied to Simon, “Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for people!” 11 And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.

You need to understand …. Peter was a seasoned, professional fisherman. He knew the waters, he knew the sea, he knew the fish, he knew the fishing business. A seasoned carpenter was telling a seasoned fisherman how to fish. No seasoned professional likes to be told how to do their job. After he gets done preaching …. Jesus tells him …. Let’s go fishing.

Listen to Peter’s response:

He said, “Listen, we just came back from fishing. And we were hard at it.  And we weren’t able to catch anything.  So I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Peter had to be thinking:

“This guy knows nothing …. I mean NOTHING …. about fishing. First of all you don’t fish this lake during the day .. .only at night. I know fishing and how to fish …. his idea is just plain dumb. Jesus, you need to stick to your ‘love thy neighbor and do unto others’  speeches and let me do what I do best. Your idea is ludicrous.”

You can continue to hear Peter thinking, since he respected Jesus so much, “Whatever, Let’s just gets this over with.  I’m tired because I just worked all last night but I’ll humor you and prove you wrong.” But he does do what Jesus asked him to do. As you read the story you learn the Jesus is the king of even the Bassmasters.

Why do you suppose Jesus took time to give Peter this lesson? For the same reason he wants to give it to us.

If we think we know more than God, then either the God of the Bible is bogus, and we need to find a completely different God;   Or we’ve made Him so small in our life that we might as well find another one, because a God that knows less than we do is a pathetically weak version of whatever God really is.   Or there is no God.   Or we’re God because we know so much.   Or…    fill in the blank. Or could it be that the God of the Bible knows more about fishing – and everything else – than we think He does, and deserves our allegiance?

Like Peter thought he knew more about fishing than God, we sometimes think we know about the world than God. We all think we know more about certain issues than God. We become “experts” in areas, like Peter, where we think we know more than God. We might not say it but our actions and behavior prove it. If we are honest, there are certain areas of our life and this world where we want a better God. The scriptures invite us to bring our doubts, our complaints, and our questions about God to God.

To get a glimpse of what I am talking about lets look at a prophet who stands apart from all the rest of the prophets. Here is what made this guy different. All of the other prophets spoke God’s word to the people. Habakkuk spoke the people’s words to God. He lived during a time of violence and political change. The political world was falling apart around him through war and destruction and he lived in a culture that was increasingly into immorality and paganism. It was not a pleasant experience for Habakkuk. If there was ever a time when people could say, “God, what are you thinking?  Where are you?  Why don’t you do something?” This was it!  I’m pretty sure they were thinking, “If I were God, this wouldn’t be allowed to go on another second!”

What does Habakkuk do?

He takes every complaint, every question, every doubt the people were having and asked the hard questions of life and confronts God. Listens to what he says:

How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?  Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?     Destruction and violence are before me;     there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed,     and justice never prevails.     The wicked hem in the righteous,     so that justice is perverted. (Habakkuk 1:2-4,  NIV).

Habakkuk is totally overwhelmed by the things going on around him. What does he do? He cries out to God. Do you notice what he says to God?  He doesn’t ask God to get him out of his situation. He doesn’t ask God to put the right person in power so that things can get better.  He doesn’t even ask God for help. He says, “How long, O’ Lord must I call for help?, How long is this going to go on?, How long will I suffer?, How long do I have to endure?   How long will I hurt?   How long!   Because I don’t know how long I can go on.” And then he asks, “why?”  “Why did this happen to me?   Why didn’t you come to my rescue?   Why did you do this to me?   I need to know.”

And his questions weren’t  limited to what was happening to him, but also what was happening in the world around him. He saw the violence. He saw the injustice. I am sure that Habakkuk asked God the question: “What are you going to do about it?” The situation cries out for a divine judge to intervene, one who is always just and guarantees justice for his people and the world. Habakkuk needed God to divinely intervene. But it didn’t come. And no one was standing up against it.

Even after he pleaded with God for help ….. He never showed up.

Have you ever begged God for help and He never showed up?

• I begged God to bring my dad back to life.
• I begged God to bring my brother Chuck out of his diabetic coma.
• I begged God to resuscitate my mom.
• I begged God to take the cancer out of my mother-in-law’s body.

He never showed up. “Hello, God, are you there?” There was not any divine intervention. There was not a miracle cure. There was not a miracle healing. NOTHING.  Like Habakkuk, the only person I could go to was God. Of course I wanted him to heal all of those important people in my life. But ….. He didn’t.

In Habbakuk’s case he wasn’t just some atheist asking God to prove Himself by doing something miraculous. It was the authentic searchings of someone who wanted to believe, wanted to know, and wanted to understand. He was crying out to God, “God, help me in my unbelief. I am overwhelmed with what’s  going on in this world. I am sick at my stomach that you won’t divinely intervene.” He wasn’t unwilling to believe – he was just unable to believe. When you are unable to believe you ask God the questions, “how long must I go through this ?” and “Why don’t you intervene.” and “Why aren’t you doing anything?” When you are unwilling to believe you just blame God, walk away from him, and take your toys with you and you go find a better God that will meet your needs.

Habbakuk didn’t take all his questions and runaway from God. He took all of his questions and turned to God. This is exactly what God’s wants us to do. He wants us to wrestle with Him because when are wrestling with Him he has our full attention. We must allow God to prove himself like he proved himself to Peter and trust that He just might know more than you.

Are you willing to say to God, “Listen, I really do think I know more than you do about this area of my life, but because you say so, I’ll go out into deep water and drop my net.”

We don’t need a better God – we need to wrestle with Him and let Him take us into deeper water. Who knows you just might catch some fish.