Is God happy?
I’ll start with this…
I know my brothers and sisters who were schooled in the same Reformed way of thinking that I was, will immediately counter/counsel that God is first and foremost holy.
You are right.
Although there is much I now wrestle with from my Reformed roots, when it comes to God’s holiness, I fully agree on this one: God is Holy.
So, I'll ask again, is God happy???
Perhaps it is my firstborn tendencies.
Perhaps it is my flesh struggling with how others have treated me and taking some of the scars from my past and assigning them to God.
Perhaps it is my sinful nature giving way to my desire to please others more than my desire to please God and then processing the conviction of how once again I’ve failed in this regard.
OR perhaps it is because for most of my life I have read the Bible through the lens of God being frustrated… irritated… angry… dare I even say P’d Off.
So, is God happy???
I know there are other words I could use... perhaps even better words, but happy, just seems to be the word my heart keeps taking me back too.
In my journey of faith, my heart says OF COURSE God is happy.
However, my head has struggled to be convinced.
Full transparency…
When I ask is God happy…
the self-centered, guilt-driven thought, that immediately comes to my mind with it, is:
Is God happy with me?
… historically in my journey of faith, this has left me with feelings of shame, heaps and heaps of shame that I’m nothing more than disappointment.
BUT what if I’ve been wrong???
Wrong in the tone I put into Scripture.
Wrong in my understanding of God.
Just flat out wrong.
What if my heart has a better grasp then my head when it comes to knowing the heart of God… Particularly on the question of; Is God Happy?
What if my head caught up… and recognized that God is not some frustrated, irritated, angry and P’d Off deity.
What if the fullness of God is clearly seen in Jesus and Jesus who we see as kind, gracious and loving towards “notorious sinners” longs to relate to me in this way too?
Allow me to share an example.
Take Matthew 8:23-27.
This is the passage where Jesus calms the storm.
In it, Jesus says to the Disciples, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?”
I’ve always heard Jesus’ voice as I read this passage, and others like it, as though He was beyond frustrated.
AND… if Jesus can feel this way in regard to the Disciples
Obviously, He must feel this way about me…
Right???
WRONG!!!
Oh, how I have been so wrong!
I’ve even taught of Jesus in this light in the past.
I’m sorry.
I was wrong.
I’m certain of it.
I’ve come to learn that Jesus is immensely more kind, infinitely more gracious, and crazy in love with me.
This has brought an entirely new level of freedom and healing to my walk with Jesus.
Imagine with me that passages such as this one in Matthew… had emojis…
Rather than the angry Jesus, I used to hear…
I now picture the slanty faced, crying/laughing emoji as Jesus says, “O you of little faith”.
Like your best friend may make after getting off the world’s craziest roller coaster…
or better… like after escaping a near-death experience…
Or like you might make with your son as you catch the expression of the exhilarating thrill of his first gondola ride.
Why or how can I make this shift in my reading?
Because I’ve come to learn Jesus is immensely more kind, infinitely more gracious, and crazy in love with me.
And, a deeper look at this passage only adds the exclamation mark.
Matthew describes the storm as a “great” or a “fierce” storm.
Which is an effort to translate what the original text describes as “seismos”.
From seismos, we get our word seismic… like how we describe earthquakes…
uhhhh… great?!? (enter huh emoji here)
When Matthew uses this word in other places, he is describing apocalyptic events, yet we in English, we say... great!
As a point of interest, a number of scholars suggest this is a demonically influenced storm… GREAT! (enter yikes emoji)
If a crew of seasoned/professional fisherman is on their home lake… aka sea… and figure they are about to die… I’m pretty sure they know this was no ordinary storm. Rather it was a near-death storm.
Enter Jesus… my slanty faced, crying/laughing faced Saviour…
“O you have little faith”
Is God happy?
I am on a journey of faith where my head is finally catching up with my heart.
So to answer the question... I know He is.
Think about it.
Jesus, who is immensely more kind, infinitely more gracious, and crazy in love with us…
Then… “rose and rebuked the winds and the seas.”
THE DEMONICLY INFLUENCED wind and seas.
If He was frustrated, it was not for a second with the Disciples.
Call it sacrilege… but after dealing with the storm, I picture him slapping one of the Disciples on the back… then pushing one out of the boat… likely Peter
Seeing God as happy (among other far better adjectives), has completely shifted how I read Scripture!
More and more, I draw my own slanty faced crying/laughing emoji in the margin!
I hear Jesus in Scripture, completely different now.
I listen for Jesus as I pray, completely different now.
Oh, He is holy!
But I’m fully convinced He is also happy…
And not only is he happy, I’m learning He’s happiest when I spend time with Him, (and I not talking about the daily devotionals that I've struggled to get through most of my life, but did them because I was supposed too)... day by day, moment by moment… ... enjoying the company of my Saviour who loves to be with me, and if you will, has a good laugh when He "pushes me out of the boat".
Interestingly enough… I’m a lot happier now too!
Getting past my shame, getting past consistently feeling like I am a disappointment, getting past feeling like I am a frustration/irritant who just annoys God... has brought me as His adopted child, as His friend… a new level of freedom.
JESUS is immensely more kind, infinitely more gracious, and crazy in love with you too!
I pray you to find new levels of freedom, as you grow to know how true this is.
He's happiest when He's spending time with you... day by day... moment by moment.
With Shouts of Joy - Kenny