Knowledge from God

Part of my concern in naming God's activity in our world is that doing so haphazardly reduces the impact of saying, "God did" or "God showed me" or "God opened the door, etc. It becomes a cliche. For example, I've been thinking recently about when it is appropriate to say, "God taught me..." When we learn a lesson, or when a brilliant idea pops into our head after much prayer, we are inclined to say, "God spoke to me and illuminiated such and such." But in fact, isn't all knowledge and wisdom a gift? If in fact I learn anything, isn't God the teacher? And yet, imagine what you'd think of a person who, whenever they learned anything, said, "God taught me." Part of the problem, I'm realizing, is that as you think about ways to identify how God is active in the world, you start seeing how God is really the cause of virtually everything. He might not be the immediate cause, but he is the first and final cause. Thus, the birds outside my window--they too are there because God "sent" them there. When I read C.S. Lewis and learn about the Devil's schemes against Christians, God is teaching me, even as C.S. Lewis is teaching me. But I dont' think this necessarilly means that i want to say, "God did" or "God told me," or "God sent me..." People who talk like this trivialize God by making him involved in everything. "Good luck" is taboo because God will cause the outcome of every event in your life.

Now, of course, God is probably active to differing degrees depending on the situation so that saying God "causes" something might be a bit of an overstatement when it comes to a bad hard day, even though technically, you might be correct. But the trick is, I'm thinking now, that we need to not miss God's role when it comes to things that matter. So, placing the work of God in our lives is a task which requires sensitivity and maturity, avoiding the extremes of ignoring God vs. making God the producer of ill placed zits.