Wednesday, March 25, 2009

does God get disappointed with us?

ok, so this may be a long one, part from a book i'm reading:

If I ask someone, 'does God love you?' Most people would answer yes, of course. He has to love me. He made me. However, if I change the question and ask if God ever gets disappointed in you, I get a much different answer. Most, I'd guess over 90% of Christians would say, 'Oh, yes- There are many times when He is disappointed in me'. It is this disconnect between saying that I believe God loves me and yet not feeling unconditionally loved that challenges the modern understanding of the Gospel. The sense that God can be disappointed in me reveals the performance ideas still resident in my theology. On an emotional level, when we've disappointed someone we care about, there is an unsettledness that goes on inside of us. Depending on how sensitive we are, it can get pretty intrusive and most of us feel like we need to do something to repair the relationship. sometimes this sense of obligation motivates us to make it right or apologise or whatever because we want to feel at peace again inside; sometimes the motivation is self-serving like with those who cannot tolerate conflict and negative emotions. Either way, this feeling usually moves us to repair the relationship. Now while this works fine in human relationships, it is absolutely mistaken when it comes to the Gospel. Because, for disappointment to exist, there must be some sort of prior expectation. We live with appropriate expectations all of the time in human relationships, but the Gospel says that Christ has fully met ALL the expectations and requirements of God on my behalf. If there are no expectations, then there can be no disappointment.

So what do you think? I was brought up all the time being told (in?)directly that I was never doing enough for God and (perhaps even unintentionally?) that He was therefore disappointed in me (as supposed to an unconditional guilt-free inabilty to be disappointed crazy love)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Firstly, I'd just like to say that the name 'more about the tone' is frankly ridiculous and doesn't make sense. Secondly, I'm not in the best of moods because I just found out that Peter Boyle - star of hit hilarious family sitcom 'Everybody Loves Raymond' - actually died a few years back from cancer. And thirdly, on the issue of whether God is disappointed in us, I think he most certainly is if we choose to take up blogging.

But it's a good start!

matthew said...

Does it say anywhere in the bible that God is disappointed in us? I feel like it does but that might just be the notion I'm bringing to the table before I read.

I've always seen God as a parent figure and I guess that means I see him as having disappointment in his children when they mess up. Isn't disappointment loving but it does kind of negate what Jesus did

matthew said...

oh wait that prior comment was from me (sheena)

Unknown said...

I would love to have a discussion with you bout this Matthew. I hate writing comments and stuff tho as i never say what i really mean and its only really in conversation that i learn and discover my opinions. But just so you know, im thinkin about ti!!

matthew said...

judie, may i encourage you to try writing?

matthew

Nick Damonte said...

I have to go with Sheena on this one, I feel like disappointment can be done in love. Not disappointed in us as people, but disappointed in what we choose to do (or not to do). I find that my mother still loves me and my brothers unconditionally but she is defiantly disappointed in what we have chosen in our lives at times. And I know that is like you said a human to human relationship but I see that as how God views us too. He loves us no matter what we choose, but he wills us to choose certain things and when we don't I feel that he is disappointed in a sense

matthew said...

nick,

thanks for posting- great to hear from you!! I guess one of my concerns would be how far we can take any analogy/metaphor or whatever it is when we compare God's love for us to a different kind of love.

I know what you're saying though and I feel grieve is maybe a better word than dissapointment- however this is more than a simple semantic issue and I'm sure Ill write about it some other day

Randi Jo :) said...

Whoever wrote this.... I'd love to talk with you about this further & what else God showed you on this topic over the past years - will u come to my blog & comment me your email address!? :) Hope to hear from you --- great thoughts here!!! :)