A Giant Staircase to Heaven - Chpt. 5

Even as unreliable as my memory is, I can look back through my life and see different perspectives that I have carried regarding God and what He is like.  They are fresh in my memory, because I see these same three perspectives held by people I meet and talk with every day.  Reading the story of the Tower of Babel with "Gospel eyes" reminds of how different each of those perspectives are.
I have moved through these perspectives in roughly chronological order.  The first was when God was little more than a "bad cop." - someone who maintained the limits of the law on my life.  The boundaries were arbitrarily set, and He was watching closely to nab me whenever I stepped across them.  Essentially, He stood between me and the fun and self-fulfillment I really wanted and knew how to get on my own.  He kept me from getting to it.  My goal then, was to find ways past Him, preferably unnoticed, to get all the joys and pleasures that He was keeping from me.  This approach to life was the driving force until about early High School.

Then, the costs associated with the lifestyle that grew out of this first perspective grew too painful - another story for another time.  God in His grace made His love clear to me and I came to a personal faith in Christ.  It was clearly out with that first perspective of God, and in with a new one.  Among all the good things that developed, a second perspective began to quietly emerge.  Mind you it emerged deep in my heart, beneath all the good Bible Study, education and discipleship.

It was the perspective that Jesus had certainly redeemed me by grace, but somehow, I was then to be about the business of living for Him.  Living out of faith and gratitude and the like - but me living for Him all the same.  God became like a - this is hard to say - but like a big seal trainer.  I performed, He paid off.  I preached the Bible, He grew the church.  I tithed, He blessed us with things.  I did what Jim Dobson said, my kids grew up safe.  Certainly, life was more than a ball on my nose and pieces of fish, but I now look back and see the principle looks the same.  Me the barking seal.  God the seal trainer.

Well, one day, God quite paying off for my performance.  I kept performing for a while, but eventually even that all fell apart.  Quiet painfully, I might add.  But in the midst of it all, I came to this third perspective regarding God and what He is like.  I came to see that, apart from my performance, He loved me, had marvelous intentions for me and would care for me.  And all because of who HE was, not my performance.  He had a more far-reaching perspective and insight than I did, and was happy to guide my life from His own omniscience.  My part - if you will - was "trust."  Not getting past Him and not performing for Him all to get what I wanted.  My part was a response of trust.  Trust in what He was up to.  Trust that He would get my life and world to where He promised He would.  Trust that He was good and, well, trustworthy.

So now I read the Tower of Babel story with "Gospel eyes" and understand that God did not disrupt the plans of the builders because they had crossed the line or failed to perform His demands.  No, this trustworthy Father knew "they were trying to life without Him, but God knew that wouldn't make them happy or safe or anything.  If they kept on like this, they would only destroy themselves, and God loved them too much to let that happen.  So He stopped their plans."

I couldn't see that in the story when I thought of God as a "bad cop" or a "seal trainer."  But I could when I began to trust in His eternal perspective, His omniscient wisdom and His love for all people.  Even when those things meant He disrupted my own plans and performance.

It makes sense now that "people could never reach up to Heaven."  I can understand why "Heaven would have to come down to them."  I am transformed and inspired by the fact that He did.  By His grace, I am learning to trust Him each new moment of each new day.  Thank you, Jesus.