Negotiating with God

A few days ago I met with a young couple. Their toddler was injured in a car accident. When I visited them in the hospital, the child was on life support. As we stood outside the ICU and spoke, I saw, not sorrow in their eyes, but anger. Anger at God. 

“If he takes my son,” growled the young father, “I will never believe in him again.” The wife nodded with pursed lips and clinched fists. Who can fault their sorrow? Yet who are we to make such a declaration? Dare we hinge our belief on God’s response to our prayers? A working term for this might be transactional theology. 

Transactional theology presupposes that we meet God on equal terms. He’s got what I want. I have what he wants. So we reach an agreement. 

“If you heal my father, I’ll move to Rio.” 
“If you help me in this interview, I’ll be kind to my husband.” 
“If you get me out of prison, I’ll be a preacher.” 
“If you do this, I’ll do that.” 
Really? On what basis do we negotiate with God?

Anytime we suggest that we control spiritual dividends from God, that God is a genie who awaits our rub on the lamp, that God is an ATM who dispenses goodness if we enter the correct PIN, that God is a sky fairy who is under obligation to do what we want because we have thrashed out a deal with him, we border on heresy. We’ve exchanged a transcendent God to whom we’re accountable for a dependent God who’s accountable to us.

The result of a transactional faith? Disillusionment. How many times have you heard someone say something like “I gave up on God years ago. My child was sick. I said, ‘God if you are up there, please heal my child.’ No healing. So as far as I’m concerned, no God.”