Patricia Hofer

George MacDonald

Excerpt from Driving Into The Dawn, page 59

George MacDonald—a 19th century Scottish clergyman who went on to become an influential author and spiritual philosopher.

Since those early encounters, I follow what MacDonald says about letting my “light shine,” while generally avoiding arguments about “God’s designs.” And, after my saving moment was captured on paper, sharing the written account works best for me. That way I don’t feel as if I’m forcing someone further than they want to go. If they are inspired by the account, that’s fine. If not, that’s fine too, which is the way I feel about all that I write.

What others think, what they are willing to receive or reject, is in the Lord’s job description, not mine. As MacDonald writes in another paragraph of the same section:

Disputation about things only hides the living Christ, who alone can teach the truth, who is the truth, and the knowledge of whom is life. (Knowing The Heart of God, Michael R. Phillips, Ed. 43)

Excerpt from Yielding To Wonder, page 24

As surprising and even unsettling as it may be to us, this teaching of our Lord doesn’t show God, the Father Creator, interacting with us as a human parent might, through a system of arbitrary penalties or blessings. That’s because our relationship with God isn’t a human one but a spiritual one. His unconditional love sent His son to show us the abundance of life in spirit—to support us and nurture us and guide us.

So, whom should we be angry at? Who is responsible for entangling us in these earthbound trials and tragedies? We may need to blame ourselves at times and learn from our mistakes. But most often we can rightly blame the natural life with its laws of chance and probability. Recognizing it as the true offender frees us to turn into the Father’s embrace. As MacDonald writes:

If we will but let our God and Father work his will with us, there can be no limit to his enlargement of our existence, to the flood of life with which he will overflow our consciousness. (Discovering The Character of God, Michael R. Phillips, Ed.  22)

Now that’s a God we don’t need to be angry at!