Bono and I Have the Same Best Friend

Bono: My understanding of the Scriptures has been made simple by the person of Christ. Christ teaches that God is love. What does that mean? What it means for me: a study of the life of Christ. Love here describes itself as a child born in straw poverty, the most vulnerable situation of all, without honor. I don't let my religious world get too complicated. I just kind of go: Well, I think I know what God is. God is love, and as much as I respond [sighs] in allowing myself to be transformed by that love and acting in that love, that's my religion. Where things get complicated for me, is when I try to live this love. Now that's not so easy.

Assayas: What about the God of the Old Testament? He wasn't so "peace and love"?

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The Skill Saw Father - Part Three

Truth is, some one did have to pay. Truth is, He already did.

I have lived most of my life thinking God was in control. It’s only been in the last six years or so that I have begun to realize with growing amazement and thankfulness that He isn’t about control at all. Quite the opposite, He is about authority. He has all authority. That’s what Jesus said in my Bible. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me (Jesus)… Mat 28:18.”

Jesus didn’t come live here with us, die for us and rise again so he could be in control. He came to give us His authority. Control and authority are two entirely different things; control operates in the reality of need, authority is about love.

My Bible also says that it was for freedom that Jesus set me free (Gal 5:1). While control enslaves, authority sets me free. My heavenly Father has been absolutely amazing at working His freedom in me. As He’s revealed His love – His presence, His goodness, I’ve begun to discover that His love conflicted greatly with the lie that was buried ever so deep in my subconscious. His love is always bigger than the lie.

I am daily choosing to believe a radical truth about the nature of God. This truth has changed everything. The truth? Goodness is not a sometimes deal with God.

Goodness is an extension of His nature, of His love. It’s absolute; it’s not a theory, or a concept. It’s a greater revelation. It’s a truth we can either believe fully or not at all. Our Heavenly Father is fully, completely good, all the time. And if we can learn to believe this, we have found the core value by which everything in life is measured.

As I have decided to believe the “good news” I’ve been set free. Free to discover all the wonders of His goodness.

I have scanned my memory and talked in depth with my siblings. In my thorough investigation, I am confident in this next statement being absolutely 100% true. My dad never used a Skill saw on my siblings or me to get our attention or to teach us any lessons. In fact, I am sure that it never even crossed his mind. Now I realize that my dad is one of the top ten dads in world history. But even if he were just an average dad, I am confident that the skill saw would never have entered the equation.

If my dad wants to get my attention, he calls me by my name – the one he gave me. If he wants to teach me something, he shows me by how he lives. If he wants to impart to me, he reveals his heart with his words and actions. He’s always wanted the best for me and to this day he places high value on my thumbs.

I believe that there is a great shift that takes place in our hearts the day we decide to agree with the truth that God is always good, that it is impossible for a good Father to use skill saws on his kids. When we see our Father as he truly is, we are free to discover the authority of His Love; the same Love that Jesus displayed, the same authority He died and rose again to give us.

This authority is the greater works love that answers every controlling need that humankind faces. Jesus said, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, now go make disciples of all nations. (Matt 28:18) Essentially, now go live in the same authority.

Our authority is about becoming sure in His love, secure in his goodness. Our authority is found when we see the true nature of our heavenly Father and then chose to both agree and align our hearts in that revelation.

The Skill Saw Father - Part Two

If the truth sets us free, then a lie enslaves us. The lie that God is in control can make us horribly sick. When we believe that God is about control then we are forced to believe things that aren’t true and see things that aren’t real. That’s what happened to me.

I walked around for years subtly believing that the flu was the response to some sin in my life. When my car was broken into, God let it happen to help me refocus on the disciplines of my faith. When I didn’t get the job I wanted and needed, it probably was because I didn’t love God enough. If the furnace broke in my home, God may have instigated it so I could learn how to trust Him with my finances. Or maybe he was disciplining me because of my poor financial planning. Essentially, life’s hardships were sent or allowed by my Father to teach me how to live better, stay disciplined, and love Him more.

It’s not that I didn’t see and experience the goodness of God through life’s journey. It’s just that the power of His goodness was sadly reduced to the limits enforced by the lie that existed in my heart about His nature. I was enslaved to the lie that my Heavenly Father was a controlling bi-polar fella; one day full of love, the next wielding a skill saw. I lived insecure in my relationship with Him never sure what was next.

Whether saved or unsaved, what we believe about the nature of our God determines how we relate with Him and directly affects our freedom. When we believe that God is about control, then when something goes wrong, someone has to be blamed. If we are believers, then for the most part, we blame others or ourselves. For unbelievers it’s a little easier to blame God.

The news calls natural disasters “Acts of God.” And sadly, much of the church still teaches that the city struck by a disaster had it coming due to its sin. Thus revealing that we agree with the world’s assessment of a petty controlling God. That makes me sad…

If we believe God is about control, it affects everything. Every experience and encounter is filtered through the insecurity of our small God. A control-based perspective of God is evidenced from the subtle anxiety we experience in our heart when the furnace breaks down, to the blatant sense of righteousness when a rapist gets the death penalty. Control births blame and someone has to pay...

The Skill Saw Father - Part One

There were a couple years when my family lived in Western NY. We had a house on Cedar St, which was located just a few blocks from the church school we attended. At that time I was around eleven years old, my sister Aimee was ten, and my brother Joel was eight. Because we lived so close, we often walked to and from school.

Coming home from school one day, we discovered not only Moms car but also Dads truck in the driveway. Dad’s truck was never in the driveway before 5PM. We ran into the house excitedly looking for him. Mom met us at the door. Dad had been in an accident.

My dad had a construction company at the time and had been on a job site. Apparently while cutting a 2x4, the skill saw snagged on the wood, bounced out of his right hand and landed on the left. Then the saw proceeded to crawl up his arm. He had several deep gashes. The worst was his thumb, which he almost severed.

I walked into the bedroom with my brother and sister. Dad was in bed, his hand bandaged. He had been sleeping but was now awake and sitting up. He smiled at us. Then he showed us his bandages and told us how it happened, and how he should have been more careful, and how the doctors barely saved his thumb. Yes, it hurt, but he had medicine now and felt better. Yes, lots of blood…

When my dad finished explaining the accident, my brother and sister’s interest waned. Not me, I moved to the next - to me - obvious question. “Why did it happen?” I asked. I didn’t just want to know how; I had to know why. “Why” was one of my favorite questions as a kid. …It still seems to come up from time to time.

As a kid I put my dad in some tough situations with that question. “Dad, why did God let Keith Green die?” , “Dad, why does God let the African children die of hunger” And finally, “Dad, why do you think you nearly cut your thumb off, why would God let it happen?”

My dad would have a completely different answer to that question if it were asked today. But at the time, my Dad had been fed bad a lie. And it caused him see and say things that weren’t true… so he said,

“I think God may be trying to get my attention.”

It was a lie. But at the time, my dad believed it, and so did I. Its not that I made an intentional theological decision regarding the nature of God, I was eleven, but my subconscious bought it. The idea that my Heavenly Father uses skill saws, that He either orchestrates or just allows bad things to happen to people so He might get their attention, or teach them a lesson, or to get them to do His will- it became a part of my spiritual DNA.

It’s a lie that is as old as humankind. It’s a lie that was birthed in the Garden of Eden. Everyday, both believers and unbelievers buy into it. Like me they swallow it down and then pass it along. In my opinion, it’s the worst kind of lie. It’s the worst because it distorts the true nature of our Heavenly Father. It implies that God is in control...

God Doesn't Lead Us Into Valleys

I am writing on a daily basis. Its a very sweet season we are in, precious to me. I get to write for anywhere from four to six hours almost every day. I also get to write in several different veins. I try and take the weekends off but its hard to stop the wheels from turning...

I have posted a beautiful and growing revelation that is rocking my world. Its going to go in the chapter on intimacy in the book I am writing - one of the veins. I wanted to share it here.

God Doesn't Lead Us Into Valleys

I would like to suggest that there was a foundational truth that David discovered about the nature of God that gave him access to intimacy with God. It was simply this. God is good and full of love; He does not lead me into valleys, He only has good intentions for me.

I believe this revelation is what defined David’s identity. It was the core conviction through which every life experience was filtered.

David writes a beautiful psalm that reveals his revelation of God and how it defined his life perspective. It’s the 23rd Psalm, one most of us know. It begins with a proclamation of God as the leader and provider of his life.

The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want.

David continues in the same vein,

He (God) makes me lie down in green pastures. He, leads me, He restores my soul, he guides me in paths of righteousness for his name sake.

In the first part of the psalm, David lets us know that it is God who is leading him, and that God is leading him in good things. He is led to green pastures, led to still waters, in paths of righteousness. But as David’s journey continues, the language shifts.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil…

I love this verse because it says something so profound about David and his revelation of Father God. In fact, I think it’s the main revelation that David possessed that allowed for him to live as a man after Gods own heart.

The revelation was simply this; God does not lead him into valleys of the shadow of death. While David has no problem acknowledging that valleys exist and that there are enemies in those valleys, he gives God no credit for these things in his life. God does not do that sort of thing – He is good and full of love.

David had a perspective, a revelation of who God is that allowed for him to experience valleys without blaming God for them. In fact, once we find David in the valley, the language shifts again.

I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

I love this verse! David's journey once again becomes a testament of who God is in his life. And get this, in the valley, the language shifted from the early proclamation of He to the first person intimacy of You. David not only knew the valley was not Gods doing, it was this revelation that allowed him access to God in a much more intimate way.

I am convinced that David was able to be intimately aware of God’s presence in the valley because he was never offended in the valley. How could he be offended when it wasn’t in Gods heart for him to be in the valley? Somehow, David understood a New Testament revelation better than many of us living here now – on the other side of the cross.

The revelation? First, God is always good and full of love. Second, while valleys exist, God does not create them, and He never leads us into them - ever. Not only that, the valley is a place of intimate access to our Heavenly Father. He is there to lead us through.

The last verse of Psalm 23 show us that David new the true nature of God.

Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

I’m convinced that David was able to maintain a heart after Gods presence because he knew God. He knew even before the revelation was fully available (pre-cross) that God is always good and full of love. That every plan God has for us is good. And if there are valleys, they have nothing to do with Him. How else does this man make it through all of his trials and still believe at the end.

I don’t know if you have ever thought about this but you cant be “a man or woman after Gods own heart” unless you know Gods heart. To know Gods heart means time spent chasing it, and catching it - time spent in His presence. And David, a man who was practiced in Gods presence, a man who knew Gods heart, tells us that Gods heart is for us. Surely goodness and love!