WHEN GOD AND WE DISAGREE
Wayne Jacobsen
October 1, 1988
Why is it that God's way of doing things differs so often from my own? I certainly wouldn't have chosen to send a messenger dressed in his underwear to deliver a key message about the nation's future. But God did. I'm not sure I would have endorsed the plan to march around the walls of a hostile city for an entire week and then trust trumpets and shouts to bring the walls down. But God did. I find the same is true in our church life: what works most effectively is often not what my common sense would have chosen. In our congregation, for instance, we don't pass an offering plate, I share authority with a co-pastor, we've eliminated our membership program, and we've stopped holding a Sunday evening service. None of these things makes sense, from my point of view, but they seem to be God's will-and they fit our congregation. I remember resisting many of these when the suggestions were first offered, but now I'm ever so grateful that we made the difficult choices to follow God's leading. What didn't fit my expectations at the beginning has always surpassed them in the end. Disagree with God? How dare you!
Whenever I admit I disagree with God, I invariably get that down-the-nose look of judgment. People seem to think that having a difference of opinion with the Almighty is an act of rebellion. I beg to differ. I think people who never find themselves in disagreement with God aren't listening closely enough. It is not wrong to disagree with God; it is only wrong to disobey him. Disagreement can lead to sinful rebellion-as it did with the twelve spies in Canaan, with Job's misjudging God's fairness, and with Jonah's taking the long route to Nineveh. But disagreement doesn't have to lead there. At first, Samuel didn't think David could ...
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