Do we know if God is laughing, crying, bewildered?

“I told God my plans for my life. And God laughed.”

This rather famous, unattributed quote may be amusing, but it does seem to have the ring of truth, especially for the people of faith who can easily understand how they are not in charge.

Week after week, we hear the Scriptures read and the Word proclaimed in our houses of worship, and day after day we see an increasing disconnect between what we have heard and what we see happening in the world. Who is responsible for the disconnect?

For generations, we have heard how someone could independently resolve problems and conflicts, some of which had existed for centuries, and we were only too satisfied to latch onto those resolutions. Are people of faith called to hitch their future to the promises of a human, no matter how educated….?

What of The Creator, Whose world it truly is? What of our profession of faith, that we are the children of the Living God, and that we will be obedient, faithful, and trusting? What of those who have gone before us, trusting in God, in the Word and in the faith, some of whom have sacrificed all? Were they mistaken or are we? History is seldom taught or read these days, but the answers are there.

We focus on ourselves, our wants, our dreams, our future, and fail to consider the wants, dreams and futures of those who walk the same streets of a relatively tiny world, or also have lives lived in quiet desperation. To what does the Lord call us; and are we going there?

Tomorrow’s Gospel lesson calls people of faith to humility, to service, to compassion and to unity. (Lk. 14: 7-14) Jesus consistently preached and exampled putting others before ourselves, that the first would be last and the last first; that many are called but few are chosen; that until we fill our tables with all of the Lord’s children, there will be no peace, no hope, no Kingdom.

A favorite poster is of “The Peaceable Kingdom.” It is a picture of all of the creatures of the world in one place without conflict, without domination, without destruction. Not a reality? How do we know?

In the Scriptures, there was no conflict until Eve chose to kick sand in the face of God and defy the parameters of creation. The rest is history.

Might we not think about conforming to the parameters of creation, as set forth in Holy Scripture? Might we not remember Jesus’ commands to share our food with the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, heal the sick…?

Ralph Waldo Emerson, a writer and philosopher of the 19th century from Concord, Massachusetts, observed that success could be measured in observing and appreciating beauty, seeing the best in others, and committing to leaving the world a better place than we found it. Alcoholics Anonymous famously observes that humility is not in thinking less of yourself but of yourself less.

What is God’s response to how we are living? Is God laughing at our foolishness that we, like sheep, act without sense or thinking?

Is God crying that His children have gone so far away from where they were blessed and equipped to go? Might we not get ourselves out of God’s way, stop thinking that we are the ones who are omnipotent, and start paying attention to The One Who is truly in charge?

Is the Lord asking too much for us to stop putting ourselves first, to stop being selfish, arrogant, entitled, and thinking we are above everyone else?

If we but learned and lived the simple lessons of Scripture, might this not be a better world? There might not be ugly headlines from sporting events or salacious stories about leaders and government employees, but might this world and God’s people and The Lord be better served?