Three Evil Words

“I just can’t stand going to Church because of my claustrophobia…God will understand.”

“I can’t put as much as I usually do into the collection plate because I had to hire a plumber…God will understand.”
“I have two children.  I don’t want anymore.  Who wants stretch marks?…God will understand.”

God will understand.  God will understand.  God will understand.

I have heard this platitude used so many times that it fails to register for what it truly is, an attempt to ease the conscience over bad and sinful behavior.  God, in His infinite wisdom, has given us the gift of reason and too often we use it to convince ourselves that we’re not really so bad.  We decide what it is that we  want and then reverse-engineer our logic to fit our own selfish desires.  That’s what “God will understand” is, the mark of selfishness.

This short and simple three word phrase betrays the truth about us more than almost any other.  It says to the careful listener, and to God Himself, that we have placed ourselves above Him.  We have deified ourselves.  In allowing our own personal judgment to be the arbiter of right and wrong, we have placed our own minds on par with or above the mind of the Almighty.  If God is reasonable, then it is logical that He can be reasoned with, doesn’t it?  And so it follows that if I have been given the gift of Free Will, then it would almost be wrong not to exercise it.  Wouldn’t it?  The mental gymnastics inherent in this simple phrase are monumental.  They require the elevation of the speaker and the diminution of God, all in the name of self-interest.

“God will understand” is used as a stand in for “God will excuse,” but without its courage of conviction.  Expecting understanding is akin to expecting a free pass, a Get out of Hell free card.  It is said with a forlorn hope for forgiveness without the necessity of changing our ways.  It would be more honest to say, “I hope that God will understand and forgive,” but that would require a level of honesty with which most of us are not comfortable.

The truth is that God does understand.  He understands that we are sinful, that we are prideful, that temptation encourages us to place ourselves on a footing equal with God.  He understands that we, in our lowly state, imagine that we know what is best for ourselves, and that we are often willing to risk eternal damnation in exchange for being momentarily “right” and getting our own way.  God sees the truth of the evil encapsulated in this one common phrase even if we do not.  It is precisely because he understands how sinful we can be that He sent his Son to redeem us, to save us from our own nasty natures and stupidity.  He was hung on a tree for us.  Isn’t it long past time that we stopped demanding His understanding and started begging His forgiveness?