The Grand Interferer

I have known people close to God who has their own nickname or terms of endearment for him. Some call him My Lord, others Abba Father and some Papa God. Imagine my amusement when I read the author of The Shack book call God The Grand Interferer. All morning while contemplating what to post in my blog, I was imagining scenes in my mind – If I get the opportunity to meet with God and tell Him some people are calling him The Grand Interferer, I think he will laugh and give me a hi-five.

Early in my life I used to get very fed up with God because he always interfered with my life. He interfered in the choices I made; he interfered with my every day life, my behaviour, my thoughts, my words, my feelings and everything to the point that I can’t enjoy life itself anymore. So one day I decided I had enough of the interfering and I put God inside a box along with my Bible and other books, tied the box tightly with a cord and hid the box in a cabinet under my study table. For a time life became a bit comfortable without him interfering but later on I developed guilt feelings that made me helpless and miserable. It was like the song “Impossible to live with you but I know I can never live without you…” Haruuump!

I often read from my books on God that God wants a relationship with us, not a religion. But my problem is how can I relate to a God I don’t really know personally. I sincerely wish to have a deep relationship with him like the relationship my other sisters had with him. My others sisters knew how to talk to God personally, they knew how to trust him. They were very comfortable with him around and they never think he’s in any way interfering with their life. In my case, I think God is a very hard to please person. I feel he is always and ever displeased with me, that I need to perform well, give my very best to him, if not then I’m a failure.
Until I read The Shack book. Perhaps it was in the way the book was written, or perhaps God’s own sweet time for me to understand these things has at last come, or maybe there’s really a fresh message from God to his people that I came to fully grasp the mystery of a relationship with God. My eyes were opened when the book explained that – TRUST is the fruit of a relationship in which you know you are loved. For now, God just wants us to discover that our relationship is not about performance or us having to please him. God is not a bully, not some self-centered, demanding little deity insisting on his own way. God is good and he desires only what is good for us. We cannot find that thru guilt or condemnation or coercion – only thru a relationship of love. And God do loves us.

I discovered my notion of God as someone always interfering with my life was a result of my desire to be independent – to do life my way. But God will have none of it as he says - Inherently I am the pinnacle of his creation and the center of his affection. It is simply foolish to try to live apart from God ain’t it ?!

Also from The Shack book I read this as if God was speaking to me:

“All I want from you is to trust me with what little you can, and grow in loving people around you with the same love I share with you.”
Now I can sit back and relax, bask in the sunshine of his love, depending on him on a daily basis, letting him do what’s on his mind for me just for today. He’s not in anyway interfering, ok?