Things Go Better With God

It is my contention that the underlying message of the whole of scripture is "don't worry, be happy". I believe that God wants us to be happy and that everything in the Bible is intended to make this clear to us. I think that I can support this assertion with material from virtually every book in the Bible. The story is told, over and over again, that those who grew unhappy with their lot in life, cut themselves off from God, while those who continued to trust in God were justified in the long run in their faith. Pick a story, any story, from either testament and I will be happy to show how and why this is true. However, it is most especially obvious in the New Testament and in the parables, teachings, and life of Jesus.

There is a school of theological thought that asserts that the reason that religions come into existence in the history of humanity is because people look around and ask, "Why is there so much suffering in the world?". Buddha started his journey toward enlightenment by seeing that suffering affected everyone's life. His answer was that this life is simply a testing ground and if you want to understand what life is about, you have to embrace suffering as the basic uniting factor of all of humanity, and then rise above it by detaching from it. The Jews saw suffering as the failure to be faithful to God. Good people were happy. Bad people suffered. Good people who suffered must have done something to displease God. It came as a shock to them when they were forced to ask the question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" and the book of Job was one attempt to resolve that issue. Christianity built on Judaism, and Islam buit on both. They all have basically the same idea of suffering, traditionally. If you do what is right in the eyes of God, you will be rewarded, and if you are not rewarded in this life, you will be rewarded in the next life. This is a very simplistic explanation of difficult theological concepts but I don't think that I am too far off the mark.

I think Jesus came to say some things that need to be interpreted a little differently than they usually are. I think he was telling us that suffering is universal (see Buddha) but not a result of angering God (see Judaism). Instead, suffering really doesn't matter because we all suffer but what does matter is that you have a good relationship with God. That relationship is not built on acts of kindness, or adherence to laws, or even acts of piety. Like any other relationship, it is built on trust, love, and familiarity. Whether you are a slave or a king, the important thing is that relationship. Whether you are Jewish or non-Jewish, the important thing is that relationship. Whether you are sick or well or rich or poor or white or black or gay or straight or anything else that separates people into sub-groups, the important thing is that relationship. You can be happy in prison and sad in silk sheets. You can rejoice on your death bed, and mourn on your birthday.

The reason this is possible, I think, is because human beings decide what is good and what is bad. Follow me on this one. It may be a little tricky. Having your foot cut off is the circumstance I am going to use as a model but you can use absolutely anything as a substitute for this. You have had your foot cut off. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Under normal circumstances, we would see this as a bad thing. If you had gangrene in your foot that was threatening your life, it might be a good thing. If they only had to cut off your foot instead of your leg, it might be a good thing. The situation is not as important as the context in deciding what is good and bad. Losing a loved one is a very seriously bad thing. However, we all find reasons to lessen the impact of the loss, eventually. We say that it was a blessing that they went quickly. Or we say that it was a blessing because they were just worn out with living. Or we say that it was a good thing that we had time to say goodbye. And we almost always say that we should focus on the good times we shared and the blessing it was to have them in our life, instead of simply being sad over our loss. Let me be quick to say that our sense of loss if real, not imaginary. It is a bad thing because it makes us hurt inside, no matter what blessings can be discerned. It comes down to this. Bad things are why we hurt. Good things are why we feel great.

I think that Jesus tried, with his life and teachings, to show us that God wants us to feel great and does not want us to hurt. However, God does not (Rabbi Kushner would say "can not") change the circumstances of our life. Things happen. Sometimes we can see reason in them and sometimes we can't. I'm of the opinion that "stuff happens" and that, in and of itself, it is neither good nor bad except in so far as it causes us pain or joy. If the circumstances of our lives cause us pain, it will help to focus on the wonder of our relationship with God. If the circumstances of our life cause us to feel great, we might forget that we have a relationship with God that is even better than whatever we're feeling now. The old Coca-Cola sales pitch, "Things go better with Coke" might apply here. No matter what the circumstance, things go better with God.

As I look over my life, and consider the times when I faced circumstances that were truly frightening or painful, I can see within myself the slow shift in focus from the circumstance to my relationship with God. Like every person, I begin by pleading with God to "let this cup pass" and then I usually get angry and call God names and have even been known to deny that God exists. Eventually, I try to bargain my way out of the circumstance but that doesn't work at all well. Finally, I start talking TO God instead of AT God and then there is a slow movement towards talking WITH God. Listening to what God has to say to me. Every time I do that, I hear exactly the same thing. There is the voice in my ear whispering, "I love you; I'll take care of you; I am with you" and somehow, no matter how much I am hurting, I end up happy. I'm getting better as time goes on, I think, at remembering, before I go through all that other stuff, that God wants me to be happy and will help me get there if I will just open myself to God's embrace.