7 Ways We’re Mean to God

Over the last year I’ve written over 40 lessons on what it means to be nice in a healthy way.  Considering I’m supposed to be a Jesus follower, you’d think I would’ve considered the idea of looking at what it means to be nice to God a little sooner.  On one hand, it’s better late than never (me trying to be nice to myself), but on the other it’s still pretty bad (me being realistic).  The following are 7 ways we’re mean to God… you know, like the title says:

1. We Replace God:  People who claim to be atheists (i.e. those who don’t believe in God) are clearly not doing what He wants, but I’d argue that atheists are more understandable to Him because for them to be so against Him they must be wrestling with something (typically hurt from the church).  I’d argue what’s more hurtful to God is people replacing Him with words like “universe”.  I recently heard someone say, “It’s okay.  The universe works things out.”  Um, are you saying that as a brush off statement or are you giving credit to the “universe”? If it’s a brush off statement like “Things work themselves out” – sure.  The problem, however, is he should’ve been clearer with his point like the phrase I just used: “Things work themselves out.”  Other options include “It all works out in the end,” or like my grandpa would say, “Better days are coming.”  If you’re going for a brush off statement, make it obvious.  My friend’s statement, however, sounds more like he’s giving the universe some type of higher power ability where it brings things together in the end.  If this is the case, that’s a direct slap in the face of God because it’s blatantly replacing Him with a non-living thing.  In AA they say “higher power” because they’re trying to be more inclusive (with an underlying hope that getting non believers used to discussing a higher power will open the door to them finding the true God).  Saying “the universe” is very different.  I don’t know how or why it started that so-called “enlightened” people would say “the universe” instead of God, but it’s a very dangerous and insulting statement.  It’s like how people say they’re “spiritual, but not religious.”  What does that mean? You do Reiki, burn incense, or have Wiccan décor at your house? Besides, what’s bad about being religious? Religion is about traditions and rituals, which are healthy for furthering our spiritual side.  From my experience, most people who say this are really saying, “Don’t preach to me,” or “Don’t judge me.  God, if there is one, isn’t a priority for me, but at least I’m not an atheist because they seem angry.”  Even this, however, is hurtful to God because these people are choosing to keep Him at a distance.    

• We Use God’s Name Inappropriately:  If I hear people say the c word (and I don’t mean “crap” or “Chad”) I can brush it off.  That’s just a crass word for a body part.  Using God’s name inappropriately is a whole other thing.  Even if someone says “Jesus Christ!” in an upset way is okay.  I’ll likely make a joke with them like “That’s not how I pray, but I’m glad you’re including Him.”  I can let it slide, especially since, on some level, it’s nice they still think of Jesus enough to say his name.   What’s funny is yelling, “Jesus Christ!” is essentially yelling “Jesus is the Messiah!” because that’s what Christ means.  What becomes fun is doing this with other people’s names: “Ray the human,” “Hope my mom!” “Joe the plumber!” because that’s weird and I like being weird.  I’m generally easygoing (at least compared to my teenage self), but recently someone I’m very close to said, “Jesus F’n Christ.”  I was so taken aback, without thinking I was very quick to reprimand them with a “Whoa, you can’t say that.”  I never correct people (although I’ll make fun of you if you write, “Your welcome,” instead of “You’re welcome).  Putting an “F’ing” in the middle of the name crossed a line.  After all, number four in the 10 Commandments is pretty clear: “You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse his name. “ (Exo 20:7).  There’s no joking with the “F’ing” being used.  This is directly offensive.

• We Don’t Ask for Things/Help:  Sometimes we don’t feel worthy of asking or we don’t think it’ll matter, so we don’t ask, but if God calls Himself our heavenly parent, He’ll want to do good things for us.  He doesn’t want to watch us suffer, especially when He wants to do things for us.  The following passage doesn’t specifically say God wants us to ask for things, but it’s implied: “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.” (Mat 7:9)  We show God love by asking for things in a healthy way because it shows we trust He can do it and it gives us a reason to talk to Him.

• Mean to Ourselves: This follows the last idea: A parent loves their child.  They want the child to be good and to do good things because it’s good for the child.  They also want the child to do good things because it helps them be proud as a parent.  Thus, it hurts a parent when we say things like we’re a failure or a loser, especially because it reflects them as a parent: “You failed as a parent because I’m such a screw up.”  Being mean to ourselves is being mean to God.

• Mean to Others: Similar to the last point, being mean to others is being mean to God.  Not only are parents protective of their children, being mean to others will likely push them away from God.  This is especially true for believers who are supposed to be God’s representatives.  There’s a reason the second half of the Ten Commandments are rules for how we treat each other and then Jesus takes it to the next level when He gave the Golden Rule.  Jesus also alludes to how we treat others is how we treat Him in the Parable of the final Judgement: “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’” (Mat 25:40)

• Pride/Vanity: Pride is seeing ourselves better than we should.  It’s putting too much importance on ourselves, which puts us out of balance because we’re meant to see God as number one and then others as ourselves (i.e. the two Great Commandments).  Pride ultimately prevents us from experiencing love in all of its fullness.  It puts a divide between us and God and/or others.  Pride ruins lives and leads to all kinds of evils.  It’s why a lot of good people do really dumb things like cheat: “I could never do that.  I can talk to this person…” and then they fall.

• Not Being Appreciative:  Someone I saw as very smart once told me if I thank God for the good things in my life, I should also be angry at Him for the bad.  Even though he wasn’t a Christian his logic made sense.  I was also blinded by my admiration for his intelligence.  Fortunately, I soon realized the three major flaws in my friend’s argument.  First, being thankful is something that is good for us because thankfulness is the root of happiness.  When the Bible teaches over and over the importance of being thankful it was God’s way of encouraging us to enjoy life, especially when it says God wants to give us life to the full (John 10:10).  Another flaw in my friend’s point is that hardship can be equated as discipline: “For the Lord disciplines those he loves,/ and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.” (Heb 12:6).  Finally, from a logical standpoint my friend’s point is flawed because if something isn’t working out the way we want or if we’re struggling in some way that’s likely a sign we need to change something.  For instance, depression is simply our body’s way of saying something’s not right – change something.  That alone becomes a reason to show God appreciation: “Thank you for helping me have a body that warns me when I need to change something.”  Last week I had something go wrong in every aspect of my life: marriage, kids, parenting, work, missing the funeral of someone I really admired, house issues, and I had to miss my favorite thing in the week, church.  Should I be upset with God because it was such a tough week or should I be grateful that I got through it all with hope this week would be better? I could also be grateful it wasn’t worse.  There’s always a reason to be thankful to God, and by recognizing that we increase our own strength and our sense of peace.  A thankful heart is the opposite of prideful one.

This week may you consider how you’re being mean to God and how you can improve on that because that ultimately helps your own life be better.

Rev. Chad David, ChadDavid.ca, learning to love dumb people (like me)