Sometimes I don’t feel like a Christian.

It’s true. Sometimes I don’t feel like a Christian. I get in a funk every once in a while. What’s crazy is that I know what it is. It’s pride. I get aggravated when things aren’t going like I want them to. Instead of waiting to let God do his thing and work it out, I want things to happen NOW. Of course, that’s selfishness, not kingdom mindedness.

The result is that I read my Bible just to read it. I pray because that’s what I’m supposed to do. Or maybe I don’t do either. Life should play out the way I want it to, right? Why should I give my time to God when he’s not willing to do this [whatever it is] for me?

That’s rich. To think that the God of the universe somehow owes me and should concede his will to mine.

Sounds ridiculous when I say it that way. But that’s what it is.

So usually something happens to remind me that God’s kingdom is bigger than I. And when I turn my attention back to God and away from myself, the funk subsides. It’s not overnight, but it does happen. I just don’t think God is as interested in what I want to do for him as who I should be in him.

Good things happen

There are times in everyone’s life when good things happen to them.

Finding the love of your life.
Experiencing the joy of adopting a child.
Being spared from an accident.
Getting a (better) job.
The cancer goes away.

You get my point. Fill in the blank. Yes, bad things happen. But good things happen, too.

I actually find it much easier to deal with bad things happening to me than good things. Of course, I like it much better when good things happen. But I am not a good person.

I am prideful.
I get angry at the dog (among other things).
I often put myself before others.

The list could continue. Just suffice it to say that I’m not a good person. Which is why it is so difficult for me to understand why good things happen to me. And without God, there is no explanation. I don’t deserve for good things to happen to me. I just don’t. But God is everything that is good. His nature is good. And because he is good, and I have been created by him and for him, I get to experience some of that good.

We have certainly been through tough times. We’ve dealt with cancer, childlessness, financial strains, and other things that you may have faced as well. But it was during one of those times that a friend reminded me of what Jesus said:

Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:9-11, NIV)

Now as a father, I more fully understand this passage. I would never intentionally do harm to my children. I would actually give them anything I could that would be good for them. And I know how sinful I am. So God as my Father wants to give me more than that! (Notice that you must ask.)

I don’t deserve it, but I relish in the truth that I am God’s child and that he not only wants good things to happen for me. He causes them to happen.