Thoughts About Trials, Character & Bad Theology

“In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock.” – Orson Welles

I’m writing this post in response to an increase of bad Christian theology that seems to be surfacing with a few people I know. I’m not exactly sure what to label this theology as, but it appears closely aligned with the misinformed “health and wealth” ideology. While this unnamed bad theology might allow it’s subscribers to not be wealthy, and would certainly permit a common cold from time to time, anything beyond this is seen as an unwarranted situation in which case God not only should, but is obligated to intervene.

As nice an idea as this may seem, people who wish it were true might be missing a key component to Christianity altogether. Christianity is not here to accommodate needs or wants and keep us comfortable. Christianity’s purpose is to point us to Christ and change who we are as a person. It’s purpose is not to make the mean person nice, or even the bad person good. Christianity’s purpose to make the old person new. To make him or her like Christ.

This process, by it’s very nature, has to be painful because it involves little less than the daily killing of the old person along with all his own wishes, desires, plans and dreams. Once he is dead, the new person, the person he was intended to be since the beginning, can fill his shoes. Sometimes this is a case for surgery. Sometimes surgery will leaves scars that we have to carry for the rest of our life.

As depressing as this may sound on the surface, when I examine the lives of some of the “giants in faith” on whose shoulders we’re standing, I find a mentality contrary to those people sharing the bad theology. Though I’m sure it wasn’t any easier at the time during their trials; they later look back at that time of their lives as a source of strength and a time of growth. Struggles and trials, no matter how unpleasant, had a way of awaking their souls. It is because of these trials that character was built, and in some cases, faith was restored. Some older people will even tell you stories and look back with joy, sometimes even breaking into a little laughter, recalling the times when life was hard. Those were the times that really meant something.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. – Helen Keller

The trials that come are meant to be dealt with. They aid in the transforming of our lives. What personal benefit would it be if just asking God to intervene removed the obstacle? To borrow and slightly bend an analogy from C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity; I’d like to compare a Christian being in the midst of trials to a bird still unhatched in the egg. In both instances, once you find yourself inside the shell (or trial) only one of two things can happen. Either you will build up enough strength to beak free from the constraints and subsequently grow wings to fly, or you will be content to sit in your shell and eventually go bad.

If I am being honest, I would have to confess that I used to believe in this bad Christian theology. As a younger Christian who had never had to face any real trials, I fully believed that if you prayed hard enough, long enough, and talked yourself into a positive spin (or false hope) about your circumstance, somehow this was pleasing to God and He would remove your burdens. Because nothing of much consequence ever went wrong in my life, I had no reason to doubt this belief.

As a side note; I don’t want to make the mistake of communicating the opposite message either. I am not saying the God does not and will not intervene in human existence. As with most things, I believe the truth lies somewhere in between the two extremes.

If I were to try and briefly sum this thought up I would say that God uses appointed people, at appointed times to perform his miracles through. I do not believe that God imbues his miraculous power fully to any particular individual to wield at their discretion. I will freely admit that this belief could be very wrong, but I don’t think it is.

If my belief is wrong, and there are people with these God given divine abilities, I think I would have to take issue with them. As an example: I am curious as to why someone who would be called a healer doesn’t go to the sick children in hospitals, or the people living with daily pain in the cancer wards, and make the healing presence of God known there? I can only draw two conclusions: (1) Either I am right and God does not behave in this manner, or (2) I am wrong and these Christian as being very selfish and hoarding their gifts. But this is another topic.

We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character, and character, hope. – the Apostle Paul, Romans 5:3-4