"power can do everything but the most important thing: it cannot control love...in a concentration camp, the guards possess almost unlimited power. by applying force they can make you renounce your God, curse your family, work without pay, eat human excrement, kill and then bury your closest friend or even your own mother. all this is within their power. only one thing is not: they cannot force you to love them. this fact may explain why God sometimes seems shy to use his power. He created us to love him...
as Douglas John Hall has put it, "God's problem is not that God is not able to do certain things. God's problem is that God loves. Love complicates the life of God as it complicates every life". (Philip Yancey, Disappointment with God)"
John Eldredge, Epic
That's a very interesting point. I've never thought about it that way. I never expected anyone to compare God with guards from a concentration camp though. Otherwise, it's an excellent point. He exercises restraint so that we may love Him. Good stuff!
ReplyDeleteLee