A Category-Busting God (10/22/95) This lesson I learned fairly early, although I have had to learn it more than once!

The basic thesis is that God seems to DELIBERATELY 'break out of' my conceptual and expectation grids--in order to teach me that He is GOD! The first few times this was obvious was in prayer situations in the early days of my Christian experience. I would ask Him for an 'end' and often include a list of 'acceptable means' to that end. He would almost invariably answer the 'end-need' to through some OTHER means--generally 'better' than the alternatives I presented to Him. Eventually, I learned enough to stop specifying the 'means' and started just asking for the 'ends'--trying to let Him be 'the God' in the deal! But I found I still had 'expectations' in my head as to 'how' God was going to meet the need and answer the request. And, again, He would 'go out of His way' to answer the need, but WITHOUT using the expected means. So I started working on not taking my 'expections' (which I could NOT 'cut off') seriously at all. I later realized that I was approaching Him "magically" instead of "religiously". In other words, I was trying to manipulate God into obeying me (who was playing "god"--I knew the 'best way' to do stuff, obviously!), instead of trusting my God to meet needs with the bigger picture in mind. I have seen this tendency to 'box God in' operating in more areas than prayer over the years--in theology, in Christian slogans, in cultural absolutes masquerading as biblical absolutes. And I am still learning that HE is God--regardless of the 'terms and conditions' I try to place upon His warm and gentle activity in my life.