God and those “tests”

The topic for this week is: Does God give is more than we can handle?

Thanks

This is one of those recovery phrases that I never really identified with — not that I have a problem with it, but that I never had a sense of a Higher Power that was doling things out, giving tests, checking results, and so on.

I always felt like, for me, this would lead to some kind of confrontational notion of me and God, like Job had. I only recently learned the end of that story; after God had destroyed Job’s life, Job went to God and said “What the hell?” (Needless to say, I’m paraphrasing). God’s response (paraphrasing again) was “Who the hell are you to ask?”

At first I thought, man, who wants a God like that? But then I thought, maybe what God was saying was, “Why waste your time with thoughts like that? Why put yourself through all this misery wondering why or what, or getting into self-pity?”

I’m a long way from a Biblical scholar, but it’s an interesting story to consider. Maybe one lesson from that story is “Life simply is. Don’t fight it.” I mean, when Moses asked God who he was, didn’t God say only “I am.” Dude.

I have this weird, non-formed, semi-unified, combo Buddhist-Tao-Mystic notion that all these concepts like “me” and “you” and “God” are just constructs of our mind, created for purposes I don’t understand, and that all suffering comes from our attachment to these ideas, when what really works is going with it, not putting labels on it, not trying to intellectualize it, etc.

Success, suffering, failure, happiness — all ideas we came up with to understand things. Acceptance and peace — that’s what I’m after!

I don’t know if that makes any sense at all, and I hope I haven’t offended anybody (especially any Biblical scholars who might be reading). Just random, spiritual thoughts in a coffee shop on a rainy Oregon morning.

Paul