Quit moaning and do something

In line with the technological advancements of the world my wife and I decided it was time to install broadband at home. I did my research and decided that the best deal for us was to join up to Sky TV and get free broadband along with it. This seemed like a fantastic deal and included 6 months sky sports free in the deal. How could it go wrong? Well with sky the impossible is seemingly made possible and it went very wrong. Having been assured that we would receive free broadband as long as we had a BT phone line, when I asked how long it would be before the broadband would be installed I was told it would be a few weeks and also that it would cost an extra £17.99 a month because we lived in the wrong area. Not great customer service but I am sure you are wondering why I am telling you this story. The reason is to tell you about the phone call I made to customer services to complain. When I called the customer service centre for sky I was greeted by a very polite young man who listened to my story and empathized with me that this was indeed a terrible thing to happen and that I had been mis-sold the product but it is what happened next that troubled me. My customer service assistant proceeded to tell me that ‘they’(sky) ‘do this all the time and he thinks it’s terrible and they are just making his life harder and that they are a terrible company.
Do you see what happened there. This customer service representative who to me is the voice of Sky and is representing Sky started to complain to me about Sky. He disassociated himself from them and sided with me. I am sure he was just trying to make me feel better but I was actually looking to him to resolve my problem and I was a customer of Sky so I didn’t really want to hear how bad they were, I just wanted my problem fixing.
I am sure you are all interested but still a little confused why I am sharing this, but I am sharing it because it is what we all do so often. How often have you been to a restaurant where the waitress complains about the company to you or tells you how incompetent the kitchen are when actually she is the person who is there to make sure that your experience of the company is good. And how often have you bought something from a store only to find it’s faulty and when you take it back the sales assistant says ‘they shouldn’t sell stuff like this’! when she is the one who sold it to you. And how often have you heard people standing around complaining about why God lets all the terrible things in the world happen when actually they are the people God put here to make sure these things didn’t happen.

Let me just cover that again in case you missed it. We are the people that God put here to look after the creation and bring about His will and be the visible representatives of Him, and yet we are the ones who moan about why God let the world get this messed up. Kind a dumb isn’t it, but let me explain a little more. When we look in Genesis we see that God was intimately and entirely involved in creation, and that when he created us He created us in His image. Now the word for image here is ‘selem’ which also means graven image or idol. An idol back in the time the Bible was written, and also now in some parts of the world, is a visible representation of a god. These people when they made an idol out of stone or gold or silver, didn’t believe that this idol was a god in itself, but rather was a visible representation of the god and would show them what that god was like. When God made us he made us in His image, to be the visible representation of Him, the invisible God and so that we would bring about His will and His plan on earth, and with that in mind He put us in charge of all things on the earth. The problem is that rather than being his representatives and living in harmony with Him, His will and His creation, we chose to go our own way and make our own decisions, and disassociate ourselves from God. This means that we live in disharmony and so we see death, disease, destruction, famine, war, anger, hatred, bitterness, oppression, selfishness, power struggles, pain, suffering, resentment, unforgiveness, addictions, poor self image, broken relationships and so much more. And so often when we see this we ask how God can let this happen and why he doesn’t so something. The point is, He has done something. To stand against all the disharmony and destruction we brought about, Jesus came to live a life of harmony. To bring truth and hope and life and love and to take the punishment for all the death we have brought about. He did this so then we, in relationship with Him could again be the visible representatives of Him the invisible God and bring about hope and harmony and truth and love.

The problem is we still stand around waiting for God to do something when He already has. He has already reunited us with Him and begun the process of restoring us to who we were created to be, and now He wants us to bring about His will on earth, standing against death, destruction, war, suffering, anger, hatred, brokenness and disharmony. You see where there is any of these things, that is where we are suppose to be, standing alongside, loving, helping, serving, meeting the needs.
SO the next time you see a situation and ask ‘where is God in that?’ ask yourself ‘Where am I?’ because after all, you are the visible representation.