The Wastefulness of God

Good Morning All,

During the Commission on Ministry meeting earlier this month, one of the seminarians who appeared before us showed me a book he was reading and recommended. He had me when he said it was an easy read; emphasis on easy. :) That’s what I like especially in the summer. I’m sure some of you are already familiar with The Shack (Where tragedy confronts eternity) by William P. Young. I only lack a few pages until finishing it and have thoroughly enjoyed how the story brings the reader into a yet another approach to a relationship with God, spurred on by an encounter with personal tragedy.

The 6 year old daughter of the main character, Mack, was abducted while on a family camping trip and later found in an abandoned shack. “Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him to return to that same shack for a weekend…In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant, The Shack wrestles with the timeless question, “’Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?’” (from the back cover)

It’s important to note that this is a work of fiction—the author is not a theologian—and it’s not to be taken as gospel truth. But the story line raises many questions that beg the reader’s own answers--questions that deal with who God is; the nature and makeup of the Trinity (which isn’t even mentioned in scripture); good and evil; free will, etc. And anything that causes us to wrestle with what YOU and I each believe about our faith; anything that causes us to strengthen what YOU and I believe, can’t be all bad, right?

In the story line is an exchange that speaks to what I have come to believe about the nature of God and God’s grace; that God offers us the “wastefulness of grace…” Some of us might look at wastefulness as a bad thing…so what’s up with the idea of God’s grace being wasteful? Does this mean that God spends or uses the gift of grace in a less than careful manner? That God squanders the gift of grace? Hmmmmmmm….

Perhaps the “wastefulness of God” can be viewed in the same way as an approach to the parable we usually call, “the Prodigal Son.” One approach ends up naming it as the story of the Prodigal God! The word, “prodigal” by first definition is, “recklessly extravagant” and can be attributed to the younger son in the parable as he goes about wasting his resources and his life. The second definition is, “one who spends or gives lavishly. This second definition fits more with who God is and what God does…offering us lavishly all that we need; lavishly, with reckless abandon, offering us God’s gifts…

For many of us this remains a difficult concept to wholeheartedly believe. Surely God doesn’t mean to shower everyone with blessings we don’t deserve—the obedient as well as the disobedient? How foolish! Surely God doesn’t shower everyone with God’s grace—the good as well as the bad? What a waste!

Which leaves me asking yet another question: Who are we to question God’s actions?
I for one am eternally grateful for the wastefulness of God…How ‘bout you?

Blessings, Joanne
“Come, Satisfy the Hungry Heart”
www.CovenantChristianChurch-Cary.org


PS. I would like you to consider reading The Shack as an “easy summer read” and get back to me as to whether you would like to explore the questions and answers that are presented in the story and wrestle with what YOU believe…I’ll check back with all of you in a few weeks and we’ll find a time to get together…one daytime and one evening time…