People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the LORD. (Proverbs 19:3 NLT)

There is so much packed into this little proverb that I’ve been ruminating on it for days.  It’s so simple.  It’s so profound.  It spells out the situation that millions of people find themselves in every day in this world.

Ultimately, from a Biblical stand point God is in control.  This is a huge theological area too dense to unpack in this simple post.  What’s important here, is how that perspective leads people to direct their anger towards the Lord when people’s lives are not going well.  Isn’t he a kind, compassionate, loving God who wants the best for me in life?  Isn’t he supposed to protect us?  I thought he would never let us stumble or fall?

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked with people who have frustration directed towards God that leads them to one of two places.  For some, they hold God responsible for their circumstances which they don’t see lining up with Scriptures depiction of a loving, caring God and thus reject God and the text that describes him, the Bible.  The harm in this view is an undermining of scripture, a strained and broken relationship with God, and more times than not a choice to walk away from the Church and other believers (3 moves that lead to isolation). The other way people go with this, is that they uphold the word of God as truth and thus, don’t place the responsibility on God but on themselves.  They internalize their circumstances and view it as God’s punishment or abandonment of them.  The harm in this, is not a rejection of the Bible but a twisting of it that leaves the person outside of God’s love and care, feeling like they have done something wrong or worse, something is just wrong with them, and it is a strained relationship that impacts all relationships, especially amongst other believers whom they perceive as being “in God’s grace and on the easy road of God’s care and compassion.”

Often, when I take the time to listen and enter into other people’s stories in these tough circumstances, what surfaces is not a God behind their problems.  Rather, it’s the confluence of a series of decisions and circumstances that played out towards the undesirable situation they have found themselves in. I have personally found myself at this place in life on more than one occasion, in a state of ruin and frustrated at God.  Each time, I have had to come back to face reality and own my part.  I am responsible for where I am.  I made some poor choices, took some wrong turns, and made some mistakes.  Most of which, were not based upon the wisdom of Scriptures or in line with the ways of God that I understand.  They were me going my own way…what can be described as foolishness.  And the quicker I can own my foolishness, the quicker I can embrace the one thing I need more than anything else in these moments – the grace of God.

Blame God all you want.  It won’t erase your part.  A better way, is to embrace your errors as you return to the embrace of your Father in heaven.  He hasn’t left you.  He hasn’t abandoned you.  He doesn’t punish.  He does discipline for a season and a time.  But always within the context of love and grace and forgiveness.  Instead of trying to make God the anchor of your affliction, see him as the anchor of your Hope.  And put your trust in him again.  You may have walked yourself into storm, but he wants to walk with you out of it.