When it was just God

One Saturday a few months ago, I attended the funeral of Tony DeRooy. I've known the DeRooy family since I was in high school, and I'm pleased to count several members of the family as good friends. Tony was eighty five years old. Besides being an accomplished singer and musician, Tony was a master gardener, and was well known for several of his large landscaping projects and his expertise with dahlias.

At the funeral, Tony's brother, Henry, mentioned Tony's first job after serving in the military during World War II. The National Parks were closed for the duration of the war, and after 4 years of no maintenance, Glacier Park Lodge was overrun with weeds. It was Tony's job to get the landscaping ready for the reopening of the park.

When the park reopened, a visitor remarked to Tony what a fine job he and God had done with the park. Tony responded, “You should have seen it last year when it was just God!”

God had continued to provide the rain and the sunshine, and to make the plants grow, but without someone there to pull the weeds and prune the shrubs, the Lodge landscaping was a mess. God had done his job, but man had fallen down on his part of the job during the war. The landscaping mess Tony had to deal with is what you get when it's “just God.”

A lot of things work like that. People sometimes ask, why does God allow all the poverty and hunger in the world? Well, God has done his part to feed us all. He's provided the earth with abundant resources, and he's provided the plants and animals we eat and the sun and rain to make them grow. It's not God's fault if we fail to distribute the food to the people who need it. That's our fault. People go hungry when it's “just God.”

And poverty? Same thing there: God provided us with the resources to make just about anything we might want. It's not God's fault that some people decided it was more important for them to have a new car, or a bigger TV, or a new iPod – or the world's most powerful military - than for others in the world to have basic necessities of life. As Gandhi said, “The earth provides for every man's needs but not for every man's greed.” It's not that there isn't enough “stuff” to go around. God has created the Earth to provide enough to meet the needs of all human beings; it is up to mankind to spread the wealth around as God intended. When those of us who have everything we need demand still more, we take it from those who are doing without the basic necessities of life. When I demand a two hundred dollar pair of running shoes, or a new cell phone with a better camera, or any of the other luxuries we take for granted, I'm taking from the impoverished people of the world, from the half of the world's population who lives on two dollars or less per day. Poverty? That's what you get when it's “just God.”

War? There's another example of what happens when it's “just God.” God's been clear on what he wants: “Thou shalt not kill.” “Blessed are the peacemakers.” He's even given us some pretty good advice on how to be peacemakers: “Love your neighbor.” “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” But instead, we go about the business of killing each other, and at any given moment, there are several wars going on in the world. That's what it looks like when we don't do our part, when it's “just God.”

Look around you. What other situations do you see where it's “just God”; where man is failing to do his part? What action can you take to work with God? How can you encourage others to work with God?

When Jesus came back

It was never like this before Jesus came back. It used to be you could bash gays, or complain about welfare mothers, or walk past homeless people without so much as looking down at them. But since Jesus came back, no more of that, no sir.

It wouldn't have been so bad if He'd just come back to judge us all. I mean, isn't that the way it was supposed to happen? He'd come back, and He'd look to see whether you'd gone to church, and done a good job of raising your kids and stuff like that, then He'd send us off to our eternal reward or punishment, and that would be that. But no, He couldn't do that. He had to come back and make us do the things we were supposed to do. You know, like if you were supposed to be your brother's keeper, or if you were supposed to be merciful or something, He'd actually make you do it.

And remember how we used to make fun of all them punk hippie kids with their long hair and all? You could call 'em faggots, or ask 'em if they were girls or anything like that. Well, you can't do that anymore, not since Jesus came back. You'd think He'd wear a suit and tie or something, and get a haircut, like a decent human being, but no, there He is, just like in the pictures, with that long hair, and that beard, and half the time He's wearing them stupid sandals. Now how are we supposed to raise up our kids decent with that kind of example around?

And you just can't get away from him. Seems like everywhere you go, there's Jesus, telling you how you gotta live and what you're supposed to be doing. I suppose next thing you know he'll pop up and tell me not to spit on the sidewalk no more or something. He's even on TV. No kidding, there's Jesus himself, right there on the TV for Chri- well, you know what I mean. Sure, we've always had religion on TV, but at least you could get some entertainment out of them TV preachers, all asking for money and pretending to heal somebody. But this is different – Jesus gets on the TV, telling everybody what they gotta do and how they gotta live. I even seen him break in on the news show, talking about what the world leaders were doing wrong, and telling 'em what they gotta do different.

I'm telling you, things just ain't the same since Jesus came back.

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The above is just a piece of idle speculation I engaged in one day: What if Jesus decided to do things differently than we're expecting? What if He came back to live with us again? What if He was there to give us guidance and correction, perhaps sometimes in a gentle, shepherd-leading-his-flock manner, and perhaps sometimes in a more overturning-tables, throwing-the-money-changers-out-of-the-temple manner? What if Jesus could pop up in front of you at any minute, to comment on what you're doing? Think about it.