LIE: God doesn’t care - davidherin.org

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Lie: God doesn’t care.

Truth: God does care.

O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee,
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller, be. — George Matheson

Of all the lies, perhaps the most pitiful and damaging is: God doesn’t care. After a long agony, those who reach this point of despair end up hollowing themselves out, and may also end up walking about the rest of their days as the living dead. Often people arrive at this nadir only after enduring an inordinate amount of pain, neglect or abuse from those who should be caring for them. Tragically, many of those who absorb this lie become like it; they become hardened, self-absorbed, their face eventually turning into a permanent scowl.

No one can long endure such abuse without at least entertaining this lie. Like it or not, our perception of God’s caring is tied to human caring. Thus John says:

By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. . . . If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also. — I John 3:16–18; 4:20–21

Love is paramount – as Christians we are commissioned as ambassadors of God’s invisible love to make his love visible, to show that love; a love that is not just verbal, but physical. We must especially show this love to those who would otherwise never see it.

But to try to rationally prove that God cares, without actually showing it, ultimately rings hollow. True love demands demonstration; true love will be demonstrated, which is why God actually demonstrated his love. That said, a rational defense of God’s love and care does exist and we should not be bashful to express it. His love needs to make sense and the truth is, it does make sense.

But before I make my apologia, first an acknowledgement: This is God we’re talking about, so he’s certainly capable of caring for each soul. But usually this is not the real problem. Rather, the subtle lie that we hear in our heads, if it ever could be spoken clearly, would go something like this:

Since God is God and therefore all powerful, able to right every wrong, heal every disease, stop every war, yet . . . doesn’t, then this apparent lack of attentiveness to our suffering is evidence that he must not care. He also apparently makes no attempt to clarify this obvious and understandable negligence.

We rarely speak that plainly, but we shouldn’t be afraid to! We actually should let these despairing cries out – God is well able to take it! That’s what this series of lie exposés is really all about – to boldly acknowledge what we’ve all secretly entertained, and in doing so, to deflate the lies’ power. We do this by precisely naming the lie and then by juxtaposing the corresponding and contrasting truth, thereby shining light directly on the darkness.

So here’s my humble attempt to rationally defend the truth of God’s personal and active care for all human beings:

1 He made and sustains you. The finely-tuned metabolism that distills the food and drink you swallow, good and bad alike, proves the forethought and attention to detail he put into the uniquely crafted you. I wish I could go into the wonders that is life itself, but here I can only mention them: the wonder of vision, hearing, smell, touch, taste, memory, thought, feeling, movement, cleansing, built-in DNA ‘checking,’ and many more. These wonders enclose us constantly and effortlessly.

Think about that, how absolutely wonderful that is, and the crushing loss if we were to lose even one of those faculties. But the truth is, for most of us, these functions work in an effortless concert, which, for most of our lives, we are completely unaware.

2 He gave you a mother and a father, a home in which to grow. No home is perfect and some homes are certainly far from it; some homes (if we could call them that) are actually abusive and some don’t have a home at all. But few homes are devoid of all human caring. If you’re still standing today, it’s likely that you’ve had a good share of individual care and attention in your lifetime, either by your parents or a grandparent – not all, but most. At least it’s clear that God’s design was that children grow up in a warm cocoon of love and nurture. Each one of us started out that way – in a warm, nourishing, perfectly-suitable womb, individually crafted by our mothers, which she really had very little to do with. And then God created the strong maternal instinct to make sure that your mother cared, as an extension of his care. Again, God’s foresight for the individual person is clear if we’re willing to see it.

One disclaimer: Yes, there are exceptions to this. But just because some mothers, some fathers, some homes don’t care, doesn’t mean that God doesn’t. Most of the time there’s an underlying cause that’s blocking that care. Most of the time, when someone doesn’t care, it’s because of a drug addiction or a disability, false accusation, displacement, rejection or isolation, a catastrophe or abuse or something worse. The truth is, God’s basic design is not in question. As tragic as those underlying causes are, they should never be viewed as death sentences. They’re redeemable, but only by the very love and care of God that is in question here.

3 God illustrates his care in the world of nature that surrounds us. If we will look (and it’s becoming more difficult the more we separate ourselves from the natural world), a different kind of ‘care’ is demonstrated in thousands of ways. Let’s look at some of them:

For example, look at the maternal and community caring of the African elephant. This is taken from the BBC:

In elephants, entire family groups bring up the tiniest members of the herd. African elephants roam savannahs as herds of females, led by a matriarch. Elephants live for up to 70 years and females produce a new calf every three or four years. Their pregnancies are incredibly long – almost two years. In times of danger group parenting comes into its own as all the older elephants form an outward-facing circle when under threat, keeping the vulnerable calf protected in the middle. Occasionally baby elephants are kidnapped by females from other groups. When this happens, the baby’s entire herd might group together, looking more powerful and threatening, in order to get back their precious cargo.[1]

The animal kingdom is full of these examples. Here’s a few others that demonstrate this kind of sacrificial love (see the link in the footnote to read more):

Weddell seals
Orangutans
Adelie penguins
Clownfish
Poison dart frogs
Galapagos sea lions
Caribbean flamingos
Giant Pacific octopuses

Personal care is built into the fabric of the animal kingdom; it is the signature of millions of species who care, nurture, feed, shelter, teach, nurse, bathe and protect their young, even to the point of risking and sacrificing their own lives.

4 God himself became a human to show us that he cares. Though he had perfect knowledge of us, his own creation, he refused to stay in an ivory tower – cold and aloof. No, he endured the stigma of being a bastard child, of being different, misunderstood, of ‘learning obedience by the things which he suffered.’ Then finally, he suffered in such a way that no human being should ever have to suffer, yet he was absolutely innocent. He did that as one man, after nearly all his closest friends had left him. So he deeply understands physical, mental and emotional suffering, perhaps more than any other human being ever has.

My defense of God’s care is not exhaustive, but hopefully will give you enough pause to do your own search and to leave the door open for someone to show you that they care. Yes, God does care. He’s told you and shown you. Despite the real suffering that you may be going through, it’s possible to believe that he cares, and that he’s there and truly understands.

But perhaps more than anything, this is a call to my brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. We must work to overcome our own inertia and demonstrate the love of our God, especially to the ‘least of these,’ with whom he especially identifies and empathizes:

Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ — Matthew 25:34–40

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