Now my soul is troubled.
--John 12:27a
No! No! No! We cannot have this. It's not right; it's unacceptable; it's a complete deal breaker; it's insufferable; it's intolerable, and you-fill-in-the-blank with anything else that comes to mind.
A God with a troubled soul just isn't, well, inspiring. A God like that is in a compromised position. How can we expect him, her, or it to help us with our own troubled souls? We need the all-joyful, all-powerful, ready to jump at the snap of our fingers kind of God. We need the God who lifts us out of the storm clouds so we can walk on sunshine.
But a troubled God? Skip it. That's a wobbly God, a God we can't be sure of. And is not certainty where it's at? Is that not what we're after? If God is an emotional wreck, what hope is there for any of us?
Based on the snippet of Scripture above, Jesus Christ -- the Son of the living God -- had a troubled soul as He faced that looming cross. A troubled soul is characteristic of human beings from time to time. Jesus and His troubled soul is a reminder that He's one of us. God is near to us -- as near to us as our own skin.
The problem, though, is that we sometimes want a God who's not so near, who shows up now and then. A God like that is kept at a safe distance and had best not speak out of turn. But God loves us too much and too well for that.
PD
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