Throwing God in the Garbage

We've got mice in our house and I hate them.  HATE THEM.  One day I was in the pantry getting something and I noticed a small hole in a bag and I thought maybe the bag had a rip in it when we got it from the store and we just didn't notice.  

Then the next day I noticed it in another bag.

Then the next day in another bag.

And then I realized what was going on ... a little furry clan found a place to keep warm from the cold and fill their bellies and from past experience, I knew they weren't going to go easily.

My first plan was to find out where they were coming from and I noticed that under our kitchen sink (where the pipes come up from the crawlspace) there were some gaps where mice could probably crawl through and so I bought some foam insulation and filled the gaps.

The next day, more stuff was eaten and so I put everything I could into plastic containers and called the exterminator who comes every 3 months to spray our house for roaches, spiders, etc.  

Yes:

Every.

Three.

Months.

We live in the south and there are some pretty big bugs down here and so I'm happy to pay someone to make them stay away.

Anyways, so the guy came over and put this green brick in the bottom of the pantry.  He said that it wouldn't kill the mice (I'd rather not kill them even though I really kind of want to because I'm REALLY MAD AT THEM), it would just make them really thirsty so that they'd leave the house and not come back.

"You have a mouse problem and this solves all the mice problems my clients have.  This will do the trick."

"Hm", I wondered, "but won't they just find water and then come back?"

"Nah", he said, "this will make them freak out when they can't find water and they won't be back."

He did his best to sell me on the green brick and since he's the bug guy and I'm the God guy I figured he knew what he was talking about and so I shut up and let the man do his job.

I checked the brick the next day and no mice nibbled on it.

Then the next day, it still wasn't touched.

Then the next day, nothing.

Then the next day MY CAT TOOK A BITE OF IT (thankfully it's not harmful to cats).

Almost a week went by with this brick not being touched by mice but me finding all little mouse poops on the shelves of my pantry and I absolutely lost my mind and threw the green brick in the garbage, went to the store to find my own solution, and have been setting catch and release traps to catch the mice myself and dump them deep in the woods.  

I also had the bug guy come back and go in the crawl space to fill around the water and gas pipes with steel wool so that we can hopefully prevent them from coming in ... assuming that's where they're coming from because they can literally be coming from ANYWHERE.

(** As of the writing of this I've already caught 6 and Jordan thinks it's the coolest thing ever.  She doesn't share my hatred for them, HA!)

Anyways, this green brick.

The bug guy really did his best to sell me on it - he told me I had a mouse problem and he assured me that the green brick would solve all of my problems and so I gave it a try for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 days and when it clearly didn't do a single thing I was promised it would do ... I threw it in the garbage because it's useless and that's where it belongs.

Sometimes I fear the church has presented God to people a lot like the bug guy presented that green brick to me.  

Right?

In other words, we make God into a product to be sold, a product that will solve a problem but when after a week or month or year that problem isn't solved in the way we promised people it would be ... they naturally throw God in the garbage and try something else.

"You've got a sin problem, God is the solution."

"You've got a marriage problem, God is the solution."

"You've got an addiction, God is the solution."

"Read your Bible more!"

"Go to church more!"

"Do this, do that, read this, read that, pray these prayers."

We assure people that the deepest problems of their soul can be solved by just placing some God-bricks in the bottom of the pantry of their heart and promise that the God-bricks will make all the sinful critters or the hard times scurry away from their life so that they can move on to better days, but when that doesn't happen the people who are desperately searching for hope will naturally throw God in the garbage and move on to find another solution to their problem.

I'm pondering all of this over coffee this morning and realizing that God isn't a product that can fix a problem as much as he/she is a Person who can sit in relationship with me in the midst of my problem and walk with me as I navigate through it.  

IN FACT.

And I can say this truthfully - God rarely disappoints me anymore because these days I have very few (if any) expectations of God.

I don't expect God to heal the sick.

I don't expect God to "make a way where there is no way".

I don't expect God to make money appear out of nowhere.

I don't expect God to break down walls.

I don't expect God to extinguish evil.

I don't expect God to make my life easier or better or whatever.

I don't expect God to do ... anything, really.  

INSTEAD.

I trust that God is present with me even when I feel most alone.

I trust that God speaks with me.

I trust that God listens to me.

I trust that God walks with me.

I trust that God infuses me with ideas to solve problems.

I trust that God jumps for joy with me during the good times.

I trust that God weeps with me during the bad times.

Yes.

I see God less as a product and more as a companion, less as a solution and more as a guide, a teacher, a friend, less as a commodity to be had and more of an integral part of my being, someone I am and will forever be connected to, someone who can't be "had" because I've never been without him/her ...  and since I have no expectation that God can or will solve my problems, I have no need to throw God in the garbage so that I can try something else.  

I hope that can encourage someone today.

Much love,

Glenn Siepert