Quality time with the fam at the Lake. God is Good.

Less than three hours after that tweet, three brothers would become two, as a cold lake in Washington took the life of a 24-year-old Christian artist. As I read the article on his death I was initially stunned. I had just played basketball with Israel a week before the accident. I hardly knew him. Didn’t even know he and his brothers were a gospel trio. Didn’t even know his last name. He was just a guy at the gym that occasionally joined us for pickup games. And now he was gone. Taken in his prime.

After I recovered from the initial shock of the article, I meditated on the situation. I just kept coming back to that tweet. God is good.

Any time you see or hear about tragedy, you also see or hear someone questioning why God would let it happen. Ultimately, part of the answer is that we don’t fully comprehend the master plan and that we can’t even begin to understand what God will do through the tragedy that just occurred.

God will no doubt do powerful, great, unimaginably beautiful things through this terrible event. I won’t dare place a bet on what those things might be, but I know they will happen. They always do. Regardless, God decided it was time for the world to say goodbye to this young man. He was ready to reclaim him and use him for His kingdom.

After being stunned, and then meditating on the situation, I thought about how this applied to what God has been showing me lately. What in this is for me personally to learn?

All my roads lately have led to the subject of ownership. God has been delivering messages related to this in many different ways. I mentioned in a previous post that I have been reading some of A.W. Tozer’s work. He talks about the “tyranny of things” and the dangers of getting caught up in the act of possessing. He references the story of Abraham being asked by God to sacrifice the life of his son, Isaac, who he had placed above God in his heart. You all know the end of the story. Abraham is obedient and is about to carry out the act when God presses pause and says he doesn’t have to go through with it. I’ve also talked about being convicted about my stewardship of all the gifts God has sent my way. And then I read about Israel.

I know for a fact that if God called on me today to sacrifice one of my sons, I would act like I didn’t hear him. Huh? Say what? Sorry, bad signal…let me call you back later. Like, much later.  I also know for a fact that if it had been me at that lake, witnessing the death of my brother three hours after tweeting God is good, I’d be angry, resentful and then some. I also know that it doesn’t have to be life and death for me to ignore what God asks of me because of my desire to possess and to own. Not just my family. But my finances. My choices. My personal belongings.

I find it very ironic that despite the spiritual reality that God owns all and we own nothing, our entire society, particularly our economy, is centered on obtaining and attaining. About ownership. About possession. No wonder we are supposed to be in the world but not of the world.

I personally cling far too dearly to things that I think I own. I make decisions almost daily based on things I own or things I’d like to own or things I feel like I need to own. I love my family, and if push came to shove I would have to admit that God doesn’t always rank where He should in comparison to my wife and kids. I’m very thankful I’ve not been challenged as Abraham was. That being said, I am challenged in smaller ways, and unfortunately, I fail more than I succeed when those challenges come calling.

I’ve come to realize that I am much more “of the world” instead of just “in the world” and that pride of ownership is something God needs me to deal with before I can move closer to Him. I need to internalize the fact that I own nothing, and that I am merely caring for God’s possessions. This mindset would make all the difference in the way I approach life.

I need to trust Him to provide for my life and not be so stressed about mortgages and car payments, retirement savings and hip clothes (yes still trying to stay hip, even as I ride the freight train toward 40).

I need to come to grips with the fact that my family is a blessing but also is something He owns. As much as I love them, I can’t allow them to fill the space intended for God, and I can’t try to protect them from His plan. I just have to trust that the God I serve is good.