Devotion - Wednesday, September 25

I love working with college students.  You are at a critical juncture in your life; set sufficiently free from your family of origin so as to be able to construct your own life path, yet tethered to the communities which have magnificently brought you thus far.  You are eager to learn, and willing to explore.

You are at the exact point where I can say to you, "Not every word which comes from the mouth of the Lord is true," and you will ask what I mean rather than dismiss anything more I may have to say.

Read I Kings 22:1-28.  It is another story about King Ahab.  In this story, even God has had enough.  God is so ready to be rid of Ahab that God entices the prophets to speak an untrue word.  Ahab wants to know if he should go to war.  When the prophets ask God's word, they are instructed to tell Ahab to go up.  Only Micah seems to have the whole story.  

The attempt to find in the Bible some simple legal code are confound by this story.  But the Bible isn't a legal code - it is the witness of God's people to God's activity among us.

The seemingly conflicting words of God's servants may cause some to say, "If you all can't agree, then why would I want to be a part of the community of faith."  But the life path we are constructing allows us to celebrate the diversity of voices - prayerfully considering how the seemingly confusing divergent voices blend into symphonic harmony.  

Life is complicated; and so is God's participation in our lives.  God's intentions toward the earth never changes - God loves what God has created and God will go to any ends (even death on a cross) in order to communicate that love to us.  If God's interactions with us were not complex, how would we have confidence in God?  Given the complexity of the lives we live?