|
|
|
|
|
Is it true that God will never give us more than we can handle?
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard someone recite what seems to be a maxim of American Christianity: “God will never give us more than we can handle.”
|
Have you ever heard someone say that? I call this a maxim of American Christianity because it’s filled with that uniquely American idealism that holds that if we think carefully enough and work hard enough and keep at it long enough . . . why, we can do just about anything, accomplish any task, reach any goal. When you apply this kind of idealism to religious experience, to life in a world filled with weighty hardship and painful difficulty, it comes out like this: “God will never give us more than we can handle."
|
|
I cringe whenever I hear someone utter this perhaps well-intentioned yet unhappy platitude because hidden inside the phrase is a kernel of work-righteousness—an undue confidence in self and an unwarranted emphasis on one’s own abilities and efforts. But even more than that, this maxim, this Americanism, is completely untrue and doesn’t tell the truth about you and me and our lives.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sneak peeks from the August issue:
|
|
|
|
|
|
As I sat on the bus listening to my Discman in 1999, I wasn’t sure what to expect at my first WELS Youth Rally in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. I had graduated from eighth grade a few weeks earlier and possessed that weird mix of confidence and doubt that only a . . .
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
During this summer’s district conventions, two districts elected new presidents. In the Pacific Northwest District, President John Steinbrenner had accepted a call to serve as pastor at Martin Luther, Oshkosh, Wis. Jon Buchholz, president of the . . .
|
|
|
|
|
|
Each of WELS’ 12 districts met in convention this June, discussing local ministry topics and weighing in on synodical matters as well. “District conventions are a good opportunity for grassroots review of what the various entities of the synod have done, are doing, . . .
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
