How embracing the ‘S’ word strengthened my faith in God.

Do you know the 2 ‘S’ words Christians like to avoid?

The first one is obvious. I was gonna use it in my title for dramatic effect but my mother-in-law reads this and I didn’t want to give her a heart attack. [Love u mom]. Plus I already kind of used it here.

There is however another ‘S’ word that Christians avoid like the plague and the weird part is, its in the bible. Can you guess what it is?...

Slippy?
Slappy?
Samsonite?

The word is 'Sovereign'. A quick bible word search brought up 297 results. That's 173 more times than the word ‘grace’.

So what does ‘Sovereign’ mean?

Here’s how John Piper puts it...

"...God upholds and governs all things – from galaxies to subatomic particles, from the forces of nature to the movements of nations, and from the public plans of politicians to the secret acts of solitary persons – all in accord with His eternal, all-wise purposes to glorify Himself..."

God is in control over ALL things. Not some things or some people or some circumstances. ALL things and ALL people and ALL circumstances. How scary is that?

Really scary. Which is why we treat Gods sovereignty like crazy Uncle Karl. You know Crazy Uncle Karl don’t u?
That guy in the family that makes every family event uncomfortable for everyone but there’s nothing u can do about it cause he’s in the ‘family’?

Yea, that's how we treat Gods sovereignty. Its in the bible so we have to ‘own’ it, but boy does it make us uncomfortable.

But what if Gods sovereignty was a beautiful thing.
What if it was something that could give you more peace? more joy?
What if it could strengthen your faith in God like it did mine this past Christmas?

Let me explain.

Our whole family is celebrating on Christmas eve when my aunt hands Ashley and I an old scrap book. The back-story was she had been in Haiti about 7 or 8 years ago. Somehow through a crazy set of circumstances, she ended up at a random orphanage for an evening. She had one picture of a random orphan from that orphanage.

Guess who it was?

Yes, it was Bebe, our daughter. [Pic above]

So, of all the thousands of orphanages in Haiti, my wife’s aunt ‘somehow’ ended up at the one with Bebe, and of all the kids at the orphanage [60 or so] she got one picture of just one girl, our girl.

Lets rewind.

An African moves to Toledo. 2 years ago he marries a red-head from Ohio. They adopt a Haitian girl who met her now great aunt 3 years before her parents met.

What are the odds?

I don’t know. But i will tell u this..

God is sovereign.

'I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is still to come. I say my purpose will stand and I will do all that I please.' [Isaiah 46:10]

This is not a scary thing. It is a beautiful thing. It makes me breath easier. It makes me worry less. It strengthens my faith and I am filled with joy because my life is ultimately not in my hands.

Why do you think we are so afraid of Gods sovereignty? how does this play out with free will and our choice?