Does God have to show off?
Pondering an interesting quote sent to me from a dear friend.
Once in a while someone will send me a quote, meme, or post from a Christian source and ask my thoughts. I love when this happens because I get to ponder with someone about something that causes them to pause. I also love this because I get to engage curiosity about how I feel, and why.
This happened recently when a dear friend asked me to ponder a sentence from a prayer offered through the YouVersion App. The prayer said,
“Show me glimpses of your divine nature and power by showing off through my life.”
I spent a couple hours pondering this quote. I recognized a few things about my own response to it.
My first reaction had some “ick” factor to it.
I felt it in my stomach, like a squirming feeling. Something didn’t sit right, but what was it?
I kept going in the loop of “something just doesn’t sit well,” so I made the concerted effort to view this from a gracious perspective.
Even when I attempted to view it from a gracious perspective, I found myself going back to the “hmmm” mindset.
Is it the phase “showing off?”
Is it the desire to see glimpses of God’s divine nature and power?
Is it the showing off for the individual’s purpose, so they could see God and not others?
After pondering this sentence, and without wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings, I offered this reflection.
Okay, without any context or going to find this prayer and only relying on this sentence, these are my ponderings.
My first thoughts are the desire to lean toward the side of grace and say it’s awesome that this prayer shows how the person would like God to use their life. I tried really hard to consider this sentence from a positive perspective, but ultimately I kept coming back to “why does God have to show off?”
If someone came to me in spiritual direction and said “I wish God would show me glimpses of Their divine nature and power by showing off through my life,” my first response would be to ask “How have you experienced God in the past?” Ideally, we’d then get into things like - how have you felt God’s presence, what’s life giving to you, what do you enjoy doing, how are you listening for God, etc.
Ultimately (and perhaps incorrectly) this sentence (in my opinion) has some expectations tied to it, maybe even some demands, and I’d have to wonder why. What’s the denominational background? What were they taught about God? Why does God have to show off? And, are you even paying attention when God does show off? Also, the writer isn’t asking God to show off through their life for the purposes of others, it’s that they want to see God’s divinity and power. So there’s a bit of offering their life for their purposes, maybe?
Most of the time what we (myself included) expect when we want to see God move is very different from how God is actually moving.
If you look at Elijah after the prophets of Ba’al (1 Kings 19), God/God’s messenger came to him, gave him food and had him rest. Then God said “Go stand at the cave, and I’ll pass by you.” So, here’s Elijah waiting, maybe expecting God through the strong wind, the earthquake and the fire (why are they mentioned if he wasn’t?), yet it was in the “gentle whisper” or “thin quiet” sound that Elijah noticed God (NIV, CEB).
The second thing this reminds me of is the Pharisees/Sadducees asking for a sign of heaven from Jesus.
Is there an aspect of wanting God to prove Themself to whoever wrote this sentence? Because that didn’t go so well for the people demanding a sign. Jesus told them, “You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah” (Mt. 16:3, NIV). AND Jesus had been performing signs and miracles all over the place!
It seems like the writer might be very out of touch with how God moves in their life which would bring me back to the question of “how have you experienced God before?”
As I pondered more this question comes to mind - If your heart cry is to see God move, are you looking for where They’re already moving and partnering with Them?
What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear them in the comments below!