When God meddles

In the movie Because I Said So, Diane Keaton plays a meddlesome mother who cannot help but interfere in her youngest daughter’s love life. Predictably, her often hilarious shenanigans drive her daughter crazy. But through it all, one thing is clear: she loves her daughter dearly and desperately wants her to be happy. God similarly loves us too much to leave us alone, and His meddling goes beyond just finding us a date; it goes for our hearts, into the places that we don’t want anyone to see or touch.

All of us, whether we admit it or not, are wounded in some way. As we go through life, it is inevitable that we will experience things that may leave us broken, fearful, angry, sad, hopeless, ashamed and so on. Most times, we don’t take the time to resolve these difficult emotions because they hurt too much and we just “don’t want to go there.” Instead, we choose to accommodate them by putting on our well-practiced happy face, burying the feelings so deep that we forget they even exist, or simply telling ourselves that the inner ache that functions much like the “check engine” light on our car’s dashboard, is quite normal. We rationalize that “life is not perfect” and “we certainly can’t be happy all the time” and drive the car of our lives with warnings alight. Our normal.

God, however, sees our dysfunction for what it is: abnormal. And he meddles in our lives in every way his infinite mind can conjure—through nosy friends, annoying coworkers, snooping mothers, convicting sermons, nagging thoughts, the kind or brash words of a stranger, an unexpected love, changing circumstances, etc.—with the hope that we will respond positively and have the courage to confront the issues that may be hobbling us.

When Jonah sat pouting under a burning sun after a terrifying ride in a smelly fish, God stepped in to reveal his immaturity and need for compassion (Jon. 4). When Peter, still carrying the guilt of denying Jesus, decided to go fishing, his friends tagged along uninvited and the resurrected Christ showed up at sea to have a meddlesome chat (John 21). When the bleeding woman tried to slip away undetected after being healed, Jesus called her out of the crowd so he could address her crippling shame (Lk. 8:43-48). When Adam and Eve hid from God in fear in the garden, God came looking, “where are you?” (Gen.3:8-10).

All children of God can be sure of one thing: God will not leave you alone. When he meddles, do yourself a favor, respond positively and quickly.