Actions Reveal the Heart of a Person. Until They Don’t.

Actions reveal the heart of the person.

That’s a truism that we in the West know very well. A person’s actions are linked to who they are, we say. I hear and read that a lot as I safari through the internet jungle. Usually, though, it’s not about other people that these comments are directed. They are toward God. They say, “Look at the Bible! God is a violent, vindictive Bully! Why would I ever accept and believe in a God whose moral character is no better than mine!”

Actions reveal the heart of the person.

I see a young person acting out in a store. I know that either that person is nasty or that their parents have failed to control them. Where are the parents, anyway?

There is a person who is banging a fist on the table and yelling at the waitress for not bringing the lemon for their water. What a spoiled American.

I can feel confident about my assessments because I know that what a person does reveals who that person is.

That is until I learn that the young person in the store is on the Autism spectrum and really has no control over what they are doing. The confusion of all the people and the bright lights and colors have triggered these actions. Their mother comes with hugs and assurances that everything’s ok as she guides them from the store.

The other person just found out that the job they had held for 15 years has just been handed to someone who will work for less compensation. His wife left him and took the children. His ability to hold all that together has snapped. Later he apologizes to the waitress and leaves a large tip. However, we didn’t get to see that.

Actions reveal the heart of the person.

Until they don’t.

We can only know the heart of a person by really Knowing that person. We must be in some kind of relationship with that person. Others who know that person can testify about his/her character. A one-off glance at an isolated action will always prove to be lacking in accuracy.

One other thing, we humans seem inclined to focus on the negative actions of others above any positive ones. That’s a story for some other time.

In the Bible study that I help with we’ve been discussing violence in the Bible. Particularly, that violence where God is the subject. BTW, there’s plenty to look at. From the banning of the first couple from the Garden to the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah to the Judges, and especially in the sacrifice of God’s own Son on a Roman cross. God is demonstrably a bloodthirsty monster deity Who is not worthy of our attention, let alone our worship.

I could end this now by simply stating that God is God, and we are not. God is, after all, the Supreme Being. Who are we to judge God’s actions? Our puny, little brains are insufficient to see the wisdom behind what God does. That’s the common fundagelical line. God is Sovereign. God is Infinite. God can do whatever God wants. Who are we to question God?

I won’t stop there because that’s all pretty much religious sounding bullshit. That’s not God. I wrote above about two different people who were acting in ways that we would not deem correct in our society. I also wrote how easy it is to misjudge the situation. For us to truly know them, I wrote that we would need to have some kind of relationship with those people. Or, at least a relationship with someone who is an eyewitness to how they actually are as people. Someone to testify to their character.

The same is true for God. We discussed in our little study that whenever we read about God inflicting violence on the world we need to look and see ‘what else is going on.’ Billy Graham’s famous saying, “The Bible said it; I believe it; That settles it” is inadequate at best and alarmingly naïve and harmful at worst. In Graham’s view, all we need is what he called a “simple reading” of the Scripture in order to know what God wants. Again, religious sounding bullshit. That’s what I expect from a person who doesn’t really know God. Someone who wants to justify himself. Perhaps, someone who wants to earn a living. I’m looking at you, Graham Junior.

Anyway, I digress.

If anyone really wants to know God and why the Bible ascribes so much evil to God, that one must try to know Who God Is. That requires a relationship with God. Not a simple task. It is one that is truly worthwhile engaging in. Or, that person’s gotta talk to an eyewitness. Someone who knows God and can testify accurately about God’s character.

‘In that Bible study, I tell the folks who show up that I want them to become better readers of Scripture. I desire that they learn how to sit with the text and consider it within the historical and cultural contexts within which it was written. I really want them to do more than Graham ever said.

I’ve found that even that’s not quite enough. Yeah, we can read the texts critically and learn a lot about them. We can understand the mindset of the writers and the original readers a bit better, perhaps. That’s good in its own right.

What I’ve learned, though, is that it’s more important to Know God than to know what the Book says about God. If we know God as God desires to be known, if we seek God and build a relationship with God, then the stories in Bible begin to make sense. We can reliably know that God is NOT what the surface reveals. There IS something else going on. We can see it and know it. If we want to.