We all know that God is sometimes wrong, as definitively proven HERE. That’s obvious! Many of us intellectuals know that!
But I was amazed when I was wrong!
Many of you often trip up and fall and are wrong about many things. I, of course, can’t relate to this, but my editor says I must be honest, or she won’t publish my work anymore, so okay! I WAS wrong! (At least once)
In fact, this happened as recently as . . . (Do I HAVE to be THAT honest?) TODAY.
I know. Once your shock has subsided, I’ll fill you in on the startling details and give excellent advice with four subtle attitude shifts to get you back soaring into God’s plans and purposes!
So here’s what happened:
I thought God said something, but He didn’t.
The good news is that giants of the faith are losers like us, so we can learn from them!
For example, HERE we learn of someone who heard from God and assumed that the other guy SHOULDN’T travel because if he did, he would get hurt. It turned out that the one who heard from God was wrong because the guy WAS still supposed to travel.1
The point is that toddlers fall as they learn to walk, and we, by necessity, sometimes look like losers as we grow spiritually.
Are we willing to look and feel silly and be wrong sometimes BECAUSE WE ARE LEARNING to keep our ears attached to perhaps hear a muffled whisp of the hints on the wind of what God may be saying and not to leave our ears lying around on the floor again?
Are we willing to step out in faith and try something but be wrong?
The last time I admitted that I was wrong, my friend said, “The fact that you AREN’T sure whether God is speaking or not makes me more likely to believe that God DOES speak through people.”
I don’t quite understand how my humility drew him to that conclusion. However, it got me thinking that maybe humility IS helpful for something after all.2
The point is, we don’t always FULLY understand God because we AREN’T God!
As my husband kindly reminded me yesterday, and seems to remind me often lately, “You’re not God.” This reminder is always helpful, so I remind you of that, too!
You’re welcome!
Good luck!
One last random, deep thought to profoundly help you is to remember that when you are confused, good advice is to listen to your children! This advice works surprisingly frequently for me! My children are sometimes much more spiritually mature than I am, which is exasperating!
For example, about this current wrestling that I am facing over being wrong, my (annoying) child said, “God answers everything in His own way, Mom. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”
Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world.
So, remember that it’s okay if we’re spiritually wrong sometimes! And as promised, here are four attitude shifts to start soaring again the next time we (must regretfully admit we) are wrong. Remember:
- You are learning!
- You are growing in humility! (This is necessary because we are wrong sometimes. But I’m learning that humility has some advantages!3)
- You are held in God’s hands even though we have no idea what is going on most of the time!
- You aren’t God, remember?
God, help us all to soar, and when we fall, to get back up and try again, we pray. Please keep our butts and hearts soft from all the falls and help us to get up and try again. Be the wind under our wings more and more often, we pray.
As the song below plays, how do you sense God pouring love into your heart and gently correcting you about some misconception you have about Him?
Photo credit – Bird soaring by Elize Bezuidenhout on Unsplash
1 (Related to this, as a general principle, my Pastor says we shouldn’t tell others what to do by using the language, “God said you should . . .” but I find that advice tedious.)
2 (Manipulating people to believe you . . . ? That’s a JOKE people! A JOKE!)
3 Ibid – Means same as the above footnote (I.e. STILL joking)
Thank you for liking me! I like you too! (Proven HERE, HERE and HERE!) Let’s journey together!
Restoring Life 