Accepting God’s tough love
Amos 4:11-12
I brought upon you such upheaval as when God overthrew Sodom
and Gomorrah: you were like a brand plucked from the fire; Yet you returned not
to me, says the LORD. So now I will deal with you in my own way, O Israel! and
since I will deal thus with you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.
I will forever be grateful I
attended Catholic High School for Boys in Little Rock, and experienced Fr.
George Tribou’s leadership. He was the
epitome of tough love. One day a
newspaper reporter asked if Fr. Tribou would install metal detectors at the
school entrances because of all the recent school shootings. Fr. Tribou responded: “No. Our boys have so much lead in their butts, it
would be going off all the time.” As we
progressed through Catholic High, from being freshmen and sophomores to juniors
and finally seniors, Fr. Tribou also treated us differently. He was strict and unbending as a firm father
to the freshman and sophomores but more kind and gentle like a wise grandfather
with the juniors and seniors. Have you ever heard of that classic police
interrogation technique called “good cop-bad cop”? The bad cop questions the suspect ruthlessly,
threatening and cajoling. Then, the
second officer is gentle and compassionate, promising clemency and pardon, the
good cop. The suspect eventually caves
in, and so did the students of Catholic High School. Fr. Tribou won our hearts with his good
cop-bad cop routine.
Please
forgive me if this sounds irreverent, but I believe the Scriptures reveal God
also relating to human beings as a good cop-bad cop. In the Old Testament we frequently see God’s
tough love. The first reading from Amos
is a perfect example, where the Lord says: “So now I will deal with you in my
own way, O Israel! And since I will deal
with you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel.”
Freshman and sophomores could easily envision Fr. Tribou saying
something like that. Actually, he did
say that; we frequently felt we were about to meet our Maker. The New Testament, however, features God’s
gentler side in Jesus, mercy incarnate, the good cop you might say. But here’s the point: we always need both:
the justice as well as the mercy, the Old Testament wrath as well as the New
Testament forgiveness, the bad cop as well as the good cop. You see, that’s how God wins our hearts, too.
Let me ask
you: how do you feel God is dealing with you these days? Are you getting hammered with the blows of
his tough love? We may feel this way
when tragedies befall us. Shakespeare
taught: “When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions”
(Hamlet IV, 5). On the other hand, maybe
you’re basking in God’s blessings: everything is turning up roses for you. Everywhere you look, you’re greeted with
smiles and sunshine. Whichever the case
is right now, you can be sure of one thing: it won’t last. Why?
Well because we all need a heaping helping of both treatments: justice
and mercy, wrath and forgiveness, Old Testament and New Testament, bad cop and
good cop. Because you see, the fact of
the matter is, we all have too much lead in our butts.
Praised be
Jesus Christ!
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