And In This Corner...

Spirituality Column #145
August 18, 2009
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper
Current in Westfield (IN) newspaper

And In This Corner …
By Bob Walters

Let’s say life is a boxing ring.

If you think God is in the other corner, I’m here to tell you that is never the case.

Satan is the opponent we battle; God is always in our corner.

When the worst of the worst things happen in our lives – loss of a loved one, death of a child, encountering incalculable injustice, tyranny, suffering, or disaster – why do we blame God instead of Satan?

“How could God let this happen?” we ask, we demand, we plea.

But the enemy is never God. The enemy is always Satan.

Perhaps we blame God because deep in the soul of every human heart we know God, know He authors faith, hope and love, and want to trust His merciful perfection. We also know Satan, know he stands for merciless evil, temptation and death, and yet somehow overlook Satan’s authorship of imperfection.

In an oxymoronic but consistent human switch, we blame our miseries on God instead of Satan.

What our hearts tell us about God is true – He is merciful, perfect, and He knows us. Yet much about God baffles humanity; His thoughts and ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8). We want to understand Him, but too often can’t.

The deeper I go in my Christian faith, the more I understand that God – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is always my advocate for righteousness.

The Bible tells me so (1 Samuel 26:23, Romans 4:24).

I think it’s a mistake to look at the Bible primarily as a history book, a rule book, or a science book. When we do that, we get lost in literalism and lose scripture’s central point, which is that the Bible is a relationship book … the comprehensive story of and operating manual for mankind’s relationship with God and God’s Creation.

That relationship, in Christ, is centered on God’s righteousness and His will for our salvation, period. God created a perfect world (Genesis 1 and 2), and we’ll end with a perfect world (Revelation 21-22). For now, though, we reside in a fallen world.

God is our strength and refuge in time of trouble or distress (Psalm 46:1, 59:16, Jeremiah 16:19), while Satan delights in destroying God’s perfection.

We ask God to take away our pain, because we know Satan won’t.

Good heavens, if you are going to blame somebody, blame Satan.

He’s in the other corner.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) knows that a good corner-man in boxing will always tell you the truth, no matter how much it hurts.