Come Saturday it\u2019s time again for me to mow my grass. I\u2019ll pick up the two lithium-ion battery packs from their shelf and slot them into my mower, then I\u2019ll push the mower to my side yard. I\u2019ll insert the keyfob, push the button, and pull back on the lever. The machine will come to life with a loud whir. I\u2019ll proceed to push it back and forth across my front lawn until the grass is uniformly shorter than it was before I started. In the back yard I\u2019ll repeat the pushing until it is all done. The next step will be for me to take the electric edger and trim around the sidewalk and bushes so that everything is neat and tidy.<\/p>\n
\tI have control of how my lawn looks: I have a sprinkler system that daily squirts water onto it so that it stays green despite the fact that I live in a desert. And I use tools running on electricity to keep the green from going wild. My savannah is tamed.<\/p>\n
\tFor many of us, we treat God like I treat my lawn, and imagine we can keep him trim and tidy and tamed. Like our lawns, we want neat and pleasant lives. Isn\u2019t that mostly why so many of us put money in the offering plate, attend church weekly, and offer prayers that always end with the magic words \u201cin Jesus Name, Amen\u201d? <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve heard that there are tribes that dance and bang drums in order to scare away the monster that attempts to consume the sun during an eclipse. The ancient Canaanites sacrificed to their gods in order to make the rain come in spring and bountiful harvests in the autumn.<\/p>\n
When we get what we want, then we are convinced we did the right thing that got God to give us what we wanted and like a lucky shirt, we\u2019ll try it again the next time we have a need. And when our prayers seem to fail, then we assume that there was something wrong with us: maybe we didn\u2019t wear the shirt quite right\u2014or maybe we shouldn\u2019t have washed it. <\/p>\n
If that\u2019s the case, then we don\u2019t have a relationship with God. We have a superstition. When bad things come into our lives, we double down on our superstition. We convince ourselves that we didn\u2019t have enough faith, that we didn\u2019t go to church enough, that maybe folding money would be better than jingling money. Or maybe we\u2019re being punished because we snuck an extra helping of chocolate cake, or because we thought too long and hard about Brad Pitt\u2019s abs, or Jennifer Aniston\u2019s legs, or because we used bad language when that moron insisted on driving 35 in a 50 mile an hour zone. <\/p>\n
God is not moved if we let black cats cross our path. He doesn\u2019t abandon us if we don\u2019t walk under ladders. He doesn\u2019t turn our children into drug addicts if we don\u2019t break mirrors. Tossing some salt over our shoulder will not keep our loved ones from dying in a car accident. A lucky shirt is not going to get us out of cancer treatment.<\/p>\n
God doesn\u2019t grant prizes because you perform the right rituals in the right way, he doesn\u2019t give you a cookie when you drop a buck in the plate. He doesn\u2019t tell you what a good girl or boy you are when you avoid screwing your neighbor. Neither is he going to curse you because you forgot to read your Bible today, or got too busy, or wanted to watch the Dodgers instead. The blessings of heaven are not being held back until you discover some secret. Jesus already died for your sins. They don\u2019t count against you anymore. In Christ, we are already righteous. In Christ, we have everlasting life. In Christ, we have eternity in our hearts.<\/p>\n
\tWhat we forget, thanks to our superstitions, is a simple truth. We have someone who loves us more than words can say. You can\u2019t make him love you any more, or any less. His love is stuck on maximum.<\/p>\n
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