I heard it again today: "God won't give you more than you can handle." It just made my skin crawl. This popular, unthinking, 'Christian' response to everything that happens to people just does not make sense, nor does it reflect the fullness, mercy, grace and strength of both the cross and an empty tomb. It just doesn't.
'My hemorrhoids are killing me, but God won't give me more than I can handle', 'The cancer treatments are really making me sick, but God won't give me more than I can handle', 'Our child was in an awful automobile accident, but God won't give us more than we can handle', 'We don't make enough money to afford health insurance and my wife can't have the operation she needs to fix her back, but God won't give us more than we can handle', 'I have spent my whole life farming and can no longer keep up with the rising land costs, taxes, and implement expenses, so I guess it is time for me to go out of business, but God won't give me more than I can handle', 'I just found out that I have lung cancer and haven't smoked a day in my life, so God must be testing me, but I know God won't give me more than I can handle', and 'Our baby died at birth on Christmas day. I'm not sure why God would let that happen, but I was told that God doesn't ever give anyone more than they can handle.' I have heard every one of these and probably hundreds, if not thousands, more in nearly twenty years of ministry . . . and every time I hear those words spoken, mostly by well meaning 'Christians', I cringe for the faith - and for what it implies about God.
What kind of angry, vengeful, spiteful, testing (testy?) God do these people believe in? Do they believe that God is so consumed about finding out how faithful each person can be that God spends all day and all night just trying out different plagues and diseases and maladies upon them to find out 'how much they can handle'? Are the current pop-evangelicals trying to use this rationale in order that God be blamed for everything that can't easily be explained? Is this just another way to 'fear' people into the Christian faith?
Is it easier to make God the 'Cosmic-Tester' of all things human, the One who presses the boundaries of human endurance and faith, rather than spend hard time in prayer and study wrestling with the notions of human mortality and Divine Presence in the midst of the human experience? In my humble mind, this rates right up there with calling tornadoes, cyclones, hurricanes, floods, fires and avalanches, 'acts of God', while completely forgetting to credit God with the wonderful days of sunshine and rainbows that most people believe is their inalienable right to enjoy every day. How must such a statement be heard in the ears of: homeless children; parents whose sons or daughters are killed or maimed by acts of random violence; by children whose parent(s) die early in their lives as a result of an accident or illness; by the victims of the violence in Darfur; by the starving in Africa; by the typhoon survivors in Bangladesh; by the victims and survivors of 9-1-1; by the common ordinary citizen of Iraq whose life and livelihood is now rubble; by people born with physical or mental challenges; by the woman who is beaten by her spouse; or by the children (and their parents) who are kidnapped, sexually molested and killed or prostituted for profit? Listen to those words with their ears.
The God of my faith, the God revealed in Jesus Christ, the God present in the power and wonder of God's Holy Spirit, is the God who enters into the human condition precisely at the confluence point of pain, difficulty, terror, fear, and grief and is present with the ones enduring such difficulties. God, throughout the Bible, is the God of the downtrodden, the sick, the mourning, the naked, the hungry, the thirsty, the imprisoned, the marginalized, and acts on every level on their behalf, regardless of their faith tradition, ethnicity, economic level, gender, or nationality. The Israelites were established to be the 'light unto the nations' regarding this very point. Jesus, the very Presence of God (Messiah = God With Us), embodies that message faithfully, even unto death upon a cross. So little does humanity want to hear that such Presence counts servanthood on behalf of " . . . the least of these, my brethren" as a core value of the faith, that we continue, even today, to crucify Jesus all over again every time we say, "Well, you know, God won't give you more than you can handle."
From where I am, the human body is very frail and the human spirit is often very self-absorbed and, too many times, we put off as God's doing everything that we can't explain or for which we don't want to accept responsibility. It becomes a God thing and our own faith doesn't have to come into question, nor do we have to look again at the cross and empty tomb and ponder God's willingness to conquer our fear of death in order that Faith, Hope and Love have a place in our daily lives.
For the ones who dare to stand at the empty tomb and feel the winds of the Spirit move through their lives, God is the God who is present in the midst of, not the God who inflicts in spite of, all that humanity endures. This is the God of my faith, who gives me a heart and soul in Christian discipleship to handle with conviction all that life throws my way on this sacred journey. This is the God of Jesus Christ who stands in the midst of our current day tribunals of ignorance and fear. This is the God of the Holy Spirit who is still revealing God's ongoing history of redemptive love and forgiveness. This is the God who is in all that you handle, no matter what, no matter when, no matter how, no matter where. God is the Victor on our behalf. To be counted at Christ's side on the journey is the handle I need for all that this life includes. And that, is quite enough for me.
Your servant in Christ,
Pastor Don
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