God is the Ultimate Gentleman

I wasn't going to write anything heavy this week. I had my fun post and I thought that was where I would leave my writing. God, however, had a different plan as He so often does. Has anything ever kept popping up around you to the point that there was no denying it was God speaking to you? Here's what He's been saying...

God is the perfect gentleman.

Sure, we may know this and it may make perfect sense, but do we ever really think about it? God doesn't make people do things they don't want to do. (He may have them be swallowed by a huge fish to get a reality check, but He doesn't force people to do anything.) We choose salvation. It's like the ice cream truck drove up to your house and the ice cream guy said, "Hey! Do you want all the ice cream in this truck for free? Also, there is literally a never ending supply of ice cream in here and it will never give you a brain freeze." The obvious choice would be a roaring, "YES!" right? Well, some people say, "No thanks, I'm good."

The offer is extended but some people say no. Why? Well C.S. Lewis summed it up pretty well when he said this:

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

We aspire for so little when so much is offered. We think that anything you can make with our own hands is better than what came from the hands of the Maker. 

There is a play by Christopher Marlowe called Doctor Faustus. The titular character is the classic example of someone who has everything the world has to offer but wants more. He wants fame and he wants glory so he sells his soul to the devil. He wants to repent. He wants to turn back from his ways and cry out to God for help, but he doesn't. He feels like he has ran so far from God that he can't ask for help. 

So often lost people feel like Faustus. They feel like they have ran so far from God that they aren't even worthy of calling out His name. They would love to and they may have gotten close to crying out to the Lord, but every time they do, Satan whispers in their ear reminding them of all they've done. They don't feel worthy of coming to their Father because of what they've done. Sound familiar?

In the parable of the Prodigal Son, Jesus spelled out exactly how vast and forgiving God's love is. Like the father of the prodigal son, God rejoices when His children come home to Him. God isn't shooting you angry messages asking where you are and He isn't going to be standing there at the door to gripe at you and tell you how bad you've been. He's waiting to wrap you up in His arms, give you all the goodness He has to offer and say, "This child of mine was dead and is alive again. They were lost and are found!" 

There are so many misconceptions about God's nature that I encounter when I talk to my friends who aren't Christians, but a very common one is that He is controlling. This couldn't be any further from the truth. You see, God never forced anyone into salvation and He never forced anyone into Hell. He lets us make the choice for ourselves because His love for us is so deep. God would never make us do anything we don't want to do. 

Can you even imagine what that must be like for Him? He loves us so infinitely much that He gives us the choice to accept Him or to reject Him. I've boggled this thought around in my head for a long time and it makes me cry every time. He's God. I'm a worm on the pavement after the rain. I'm the smallest, most insignificant thing in terms of eternity, but He gives me the ultimate choice. 

God is the ultimate gentleman. He is kind. He is loving. He would never force us into doing anything we don't want to do. If we don't want to accept the gift Jesus gave us when He died on the cross we don't have to. He will be knocking on the door, but if we tell Him to go away or that we can do our lives with out Him, He will respect our wishes. He will still love us and it will hurt Him, but He will respect our wishes.