In my prayer time this morning, I once again asserted to God that I wanted to please Him. But instead of moving on to another aspect of my prayer, I was forced to stop and consider the words I had just prayed. Was I really wanting to please Him?
Pleasing, in my mind, requires doing. This is true especially in the context of my relationship with my earthly father. I have for most of my life sought approval from him. Much of my focus was centered around making him happy so that I wouldn’t get “the look” or worse, a tongue lashing or a spanking. I have realized in the past couple of months that I still seek approval from those males I respect or who are in a position of authority over me.
Our relationship with our father carries over to our relationship with our Father. In my context, silence would kill me emotionally. And the silence of God would indicate to me His displeasure in me. I would try harder, pray harder, and try to live better. I had to make my Dad happy with me.
In our sermons and our daily discussions we use some derivation of this phrase, “We should seek to please God”. What are we really saying and what are we creating? We are creating an emotional dependance on God approving what we DO. This drives us to perform and produce. It causes us a great sense of guilt when we don’t tell everyone we meet every time we meet them about Jesus. It motivates pastors to guilt people into doing, implying that pleasing God is about doing.
Two examples explode this idea, I believe. The first is the prodigal son. It truly gives us insight into the heart of God. God is not so much to “be pleased” but to “be with”. The father wasn’t concerned about what the boy had done (or not done). He was pleased just to have his lost son with him. He restored the boy’s sonship simply because he was a son; not because he acted like a son.
We please God by being with him, not performing for Him.
Our identity is wrapped up in being, not doing. Our doing can only come from our being. This is the importance of Jesus’ call to the disciples in Mark 1, “Follow me and I will cause you to become…” The “I will make” is best translated “cause to become”. The student is to become like the master. This is why Jesus only did what he saw his father doing, where he saw his father doing it. They did it together. It was not one dependent on the other (at least in this father/son relationship). It was both dependent on each other.
For us, this necessitates a pneumanautical ministry, one that is Spirit led and Spirit initiated. It is something done together that results out of being together. Our doing comes out of our being together. Any other kind of ministry, or doing for that matter, is part of a performance. It turns us into producers for a consumeristic God, not a son or daughter.
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Pleasing God?
June 25th, 2008 at 9:38 am
David,
Great post. It reminds me of The Search for Significance by Robert McGee I was required to read early in my Master’s work. He noted traps the Enemy sets for us and performance is one of them.
Your reference to silence brought to mind something Peter Rollins describes as the absence of God makes us aware of the presence of God. It is something of a dialectic experience. I have been forced to wonder if God’s silence or absence is not intentional and does not necessarily reflect his displeasure but signals from time to time how we miss his presence. So, when we experience silence or absence it is really God reminding not disciplining.
Just my thoughts reading of your devotional time.
Also, in the Lectionary Text for last week is a Jesus statement, “It is enough for the student to “be” like his teacher and the slave his master.”