a video game
My brother popped by Singapore last week. One evening I asked him, guess what was the last thing I watched on youtube? Without missing a beat, he replied: a root canal video. Ooh close, I said. He tried again: a cooking video. Closer. Last guess. His final answer: one of those 20-minute-movie-analysis-video-essays. So close. Those are three of the most accurate descriptions of my search history. But this one is next level nerdy.
I revealed the browser tab on my laptop: a 49-minute Tetris tournament. My favorite part of this whole exchange was his nonchalant oh yeah, I’ve seen this competition, these guys are good, before we proceeded to [re]watch together. This is true siblingship 🤓
a quote
about focusing on God’s character over God’s will from Skye Jethani. This excerpt is in the context of the U.S. election. However, I found myself mulling over how it relates all too well across the rest of life.
Whenever there's some big event, we say it was ‘God's will’. I think we need to differentiate between what God allows and what God actually desires. And Scripture does make that differentiation. Like scripture says He desires that everyone would be saved. But I would argue Scripture clearly teaches that not everyone is saved, so there’s what God wants compared to necessarily what God makes happen.
Wisdom I’ve learned from others is that we can't always discern God's will. Even Paul talks about how we need to have our minds renewed so that we might discern what His will is. It's an indication that we don't always get it. We don't always know God's will. But in a lot of American Christianity, especially evangelicalism, we make such a huge deal of knowing God's will. What am I supposed to do with my life? Who am I supposed to marry? What is my profession? What is God's will? It's a reminder that we might try to discern God's will, but we don't depend on God's will. We depend on God's character. Because we know His character because it has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ.
So when I look at this event, I don't know what is God's will in all this. I don't know what he allowed to happen or made happen or wants to happen or doesn't want to happen. I don't know all of that at this point. What I do know is God's character—that he is merciful and he is good and he is gracious. And he desires us, as His children, to reflect his character to the world around us.
I know it is not his character to dehumanize, to destroy, to cause chaos and disorder, to diminish the dignity of others. That is not his character, and therefore we should not participate in such things. So all that to say: avoid simple explanations of why, avoid rhetoric around God's will, because I think it's awfully messy and presumptuous. But we can speak about God's character and call each other to uphold that.
be well, friends!
love,
reb