Angels
I'm moving through the book of Job right now, which is crazy time all in and of itself. I came across a passage that referred to angels being involved in our lives. I quickly discarded the idea. That's fine and normal for biblical stuff, but not my experience. Then I started thinking about the idea of encountering an angel. I don't think God would send an angel my direction, because I would get so caught up in being encountered by an angel that I would lose total focus on God. The means would totally blow away the ends. Whatever the angel was suppose to accomplish would be lost. On the other hand, when I think about times in the Bible people were encountered by angels, the work of the kingdom was what it was all about. Think Joseph or Zechariah. Think of Jesus being attended to by angels after being tempted by Satan or people getting busted out of prison so they could continue their work. They frequently seem to be in the role of messengers helping people do the work of the kingdom.
Anyway, the idea of being encountered by an angel seems ridiculous to me. When I think of angels I think of shallow or fanatical religious experience. I think of figurines or posters I would see in a Christian Supply Bookstore. I think of people saying, “Wow, I almost got hit by that car. I guess I have an angel watching over me,” like all angels do is follow us around keeping bad things from happening to us. Nothing about accomplishing the work of the kingdom. It has a sappy sentimentality about it that makes me want throw up.
All that to say, thinking about angels or being open to actually being encountered by an angel is in and of itself, crazy time to me. Very uncomfortable. I don’t even like going there and making myself stay here thinking about it feels strange. Now that I think about it, I almost equate angels with ghosts and I’m not sure I believe in either one. I guess I believe in angels, but the idea of one actually being involved in my life seems ridiculous.
2 comments:
For years now I've fought the common belief about angels. Of course I can't prove anything. It just didn't make sense that I would need an angel to protect me from harm when the Holy Spirit lives within me and works around me and knows each move I make. Believing in angels seems the same as not believing God can protect me himself...if he so chooses. My life is totally in his care and nothing good or bad happens to or around me without his full knowledge and permission. Job seemed to know this and he didn't have the book of Job to read before his colossal loss.
There, I feel much better. =}
I discovered you through Michael Chapman's blog. He dropped by the office today and shared his address with me.
Glad you could get that off your chest, Sherry. I like those thoughts. Have you seen the new commercial for that credit card that has an angel following some guy around and the angel keeps missing opportunities to save the guy from different mishaps, but then when the guy is about ready to use the wrong credit card, he “saves” him from that and directs him to use the right one? It’s great and the mishaps that happen to the guy and the angel’s response are great.
PJB
Post a Comment