A Tale of Three People
Jacee was on his way to meet Uma for the first time. He knew they would be great friends. But Zeeb was a jealous and conniving type. So Zeeb told Uma all kinds of lies about Jacee.
“Jacee pretends to be good, but he will stab you in the back.”
“Jacee hurts people, and he enjoys hurting people.”
“Jacee doesn’t care about you.”
“Remember that bad thing that happened to you? Jacee was behind it.”
And so on.
When Jacee got to Uma’s house, Uma locked the door and shouted out the window: “Go away! I don’t want you here!”
As you probably guessed, this is a parable. Jacee is Jesus. Zeeb is evil—the devil, his agents, every kind of lying evil. And Uma is humanity—you and me.
This parable explains almost everything that has gone wrong with humanity—from homelessness to home invasions, from war to worry. It explains why people embrace false religion or shun religion altogether. It explains why many Christians are lackadaisical about their faith.
Somebody lied to us about God. Somebody lied to us about Jesus.
And we swallowed the lie. As a result, we exclude Him. We keep Him at a safe distance. Or we embrace a religion of dysfunction, abuse, and hate.
This explains most of my life. For most of my life, I swallowed the lie that God was aloof and uncaring.
To be clear: My theology said otherwise. My theology said God was love. But I didn’t really believe it. Not deep down. I didn’t think God liked me. I didn’t think He would ever want to hang out with me. I didn’t think God cared.
After all, I was just a sinner, right? I was just a guy who couldn’t get it right no matter how hard I tried. Sure I prayed, but God turned down 99% of my prayers because they weren’t His will. And His will didn’t care about me.
As a result of all this, I was hurting inside and I hurt the people around me.
But about 25 years ago I made a discovery. God is not who I thought He was. When I hurt, He hurt. I never knew that before. When I was feeling pain, He cared. I had no idea that was true. I discovered that He liked me. I discovered that I could share all my deepest secrets with Him, and He wouldn’t stab me in the back. In fact, when I shared painful memories with Him, He stepped into those painful places and brought comfort, healing, and peace.
I discovered God liked me. He liked hanging out with me. That I was safe with Him.
Discovering the truth about God is not something that you’ll typically find in a theology book, or in many ways even by reading the Bible.
But the Bible does give the formula for that discovery:
“Taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34)
We need to get over our fear and taste. Then we see. God is good.
Dwight
