A thought by
Larry Osborne,
(2009-04-10) from his book, Spirituality for the Rest of Us: A Down-to-Earth Guide to Knowing God (p. 72). The Crown
Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to
buy the book.)
They are
already convinced that they are right, they just are coming to you to reinforce
that they are right. As Larry says, “When
these folks ask for advice, it's not so much a genuine search for wisdom as a
ritual designed to prove to themselves and others that they've sought outside
guidance before going ahead and doing exactly as they please. They're easy to spot, because they always
follow the same pattern. No matter what I suggest they do, they have ten
reasons why it won't work. And no matter how bad their situation, after our
meeting they go out and continue doing exactly what got them into the mess in
the first place. What's more, they tend to come back to me again and again,
each time asking for more advice—though once they get it, they're guaranteed to
blow it off as unreasonable and unworkable.”
But we do
that many times with God. And here is
the problem with that. Larry says, “When
God gives advice or guidance, it's not coming from a potentially fallible
source. It's not the mere advice of a pastor or friend; it's the counsel of
God! When God speaks, it doesn't make much sense to push back or give him ten
reasons why it won't work. That's an argument we can't win.”
He
continues, “Every time that happens, our relationship with him goes through a
fundamental role-reversal. He stops being our God and becomes our cosmic
consultant. Now, a
consultant is someone whose wisdom we highly value and listen to, but at the
end of the day, we make the final decision. That's why they're called
consultants. Here's the problem: God doesn't do consulting. Never has. Never
will. He does God. When we treat him as a consultant, he simply stops showing
up to the meetings. We may think he's there. But he's not.”
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