Note: For New Year's we normally rotate between two Card Talks. The first is "The Jubilee" which, in lieu of New Year's resolutions, suggests five simple practices from Leviticus 25 to make life more enjoyable for us all. The second is "Loving God While Not Being a Dick to Everyone Else (The Whole Sum of the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospels)" which, as the name makes pretty obvious, runs through the biblical record on how we can do better at doing better. We heartily recommend that you read both of those when you have a minute. They are a little more uplifting than this one.

As 2016 draws to a close, we wanted to write something new. Something longer than the one-word post which would run afoul of our Theology of Swearing. But we'll try to keep it brief as you may be drunk/hungover.

Fully understanding Philippians 4:7 requires looking at the context of the entire book (which we think you should read. It's short).

Writing from prison, Paul returns to the themes of community and selflessness in the midst of suffering and death. He writes about how imitating Christ, and having the “mind of Christ” (2:5), are shown through meekness: having the power to respond in force, but choosing not to. He writes about putting the needs of the community over your own needs; putting God’s will before everything else. Not focusing solely on the things we think make us special, or the things that we want, but instead focus on pursuing God and loving those around us. Not pissing and moaning when things aren't always going our way. Not treating others poorly as a result of life not shaping up the way we want it to. He says we should rejoice in the Lord always, be gentle and patient with everyone we encounter, to have anxious-fear faith through prayer.

Paul speaks about being content, but this contentment is active, not passive. Active contentment is seen in one who follows after God closely, especially through the pain. Paul embodies active contentment when he describes how he learned to not need too much or too little while suffering for the sake of pursuing God. It is being strengthened by Christ to things that were tied directly to the life God called Paul to (Php 4:11-14).None of this is easy. Paul admits that. Life will often get harder when we attempt to live a better life.

BUT THE “PEACE OF GOD” IS PROVIDED TO HELP US GET THROUGH: A PEACE THAT IS SUPPLIED WHEN WE THINK AND ACT IN CERTAIN WAYS.

2016 has left many of us with a reason to question whether we can do this, for personal, political, spiritual, and social reasons. Some speak of giving up, others of resistance. Other just don't know what to do.

Some have thrown up their hands and said, "well, it doesn't ultimately matter because God is in control."

To this last group we ask what they really mean when they say that?

Read your Bibles (please):

God was in control when the Egyptians enslaved the children of Israel
God was in control when the Amalakites attacked them in the wilderness
God was in control when the Philistines harried the unified kingdom
God was in control when the Assyrians decimated the Northern Kingdom
God was in control when the Babylonians destroyed the besieged Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple, and led Judah into captivity.
God was in control when the Medes and Persians followed suit.
God was in control when the Romans subjugated the peoples of the New Testament

God was in control when Cain killed Able, David murdered Uriah, Jephthah sacrificed his daughter, a woman was raped and cut into pieces, Stephen was stoned, and all the disciples/apostles were killed.
God was is in control during all earthquakes, famines, floods, wars, bouts of cancer, AIDS/HIV, Parkinson's, paralysis, dementia, still births, and deaths of all kinds.
God was in control as refugees seek comfort, while martyrs are bleeding out, as bombs are severing families, while racist, nationalistic, and authoritarian ideologies are sweeping the world.
God was in control during all the seasons people raise laments.

We could go on.

Yes. God is in control. What's your point?

We are not going to get into a fight about theodicy right now and explicate where is God when bad things happen to good people, good things happen to bad people, and things of all sort are happening to you (that is a conversation for whenever we get around to our cards from Job and Ecclesiastes.) However, we would like to make a simple biblical suggestion: "God is in control" is often an example of Christian fatalism: an anti-intellectual, un-spiritual, amoral cop-out.

It's an easy one to fall into. It requires nothing.

Nothing at all.

You don't have to think about if God allows or causes events things to happen.
You don't have to question God's will for your life or the world.
You don't have to answer any of the tough questions anyone asks you.
You don't have to do anything except sigh and intone "God is in control."

Walter Brueggemann wrote of what our spiritual fore-bearers believed about God in the face of turmoil. Two quotes from The Unsettling God are illustrative:

“In the face of devastating nullification… it is the characteristic of YHWH to work radical newness.” (p 160)

“This promised action of YHWH is clearly designed to overcome all that is amiss, whether what is amiss has been caused by YHWH’s anger, by Israel’s disobedience, or by other untamed forces of death” (p 159)

The Bible is filled with words of trauma from people who reach back to a promise they feel God made with them, people reaching out their hands to have that promise fulfilled. They believed that God was in control and could bring new creation out of chaos, hope out of the most hopeless situations.

This is true. This is wonderful. And this is true.

But Brueggemann also wrote

“Sometimes in a world where the circumstances are hopeless, then a promissory word is all that stands between us and chaos. Then it is important to pray and speak and sing and share that word against all that data.” (Praying the Psalms)

The other danger of "God is in control" thinking is that it absolves the person saying it of any personal responsibility. "God is in control" insidiously becomes lived as "Everything is in God's control, God's hands, God's timing, God's will, so I don't have to do anything at all."

While the terrible list above record what has happened from biblical times to now, and God was in control, redeeming creation from chaos, there were others doing the same. Moses, Aaron, Miriam, Jethro, Joshua, Caleb, Deborah, Ja’el, Samuel, Asaph, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, John the Baptist, a whole bunch of Marys, Martha, Peter, Andrew, Paul, Lydia, Dorcus, and countless ancient and modern others have gotten their hands dirty, crafting the sacred from the shit.

What about you?