(This Post is the Second Entry in a series that explores ideas in the book How People Grow, by Henry Cloud and John Townsend).

There’s a reason why the prosperity gospel reeks of something less-than-holy.

Anyone with access to a television set or the Internet can see that despite Jesus’ death and resurrection, there are still people suffering from disease and starvation. Anyone who comes across another human being every now and then will find that these humans can be kind of nasty, careless, and downright evil at times. And anyone who lives on planet Earth has witnessed the havoc that can be wreaked by seemingly mundane and inoffensive things, such as water and air.

In fact, the prosperity gospel doesn’t even make sense in the Bible, either. I wonder if all those early disciples were a little confused right before they were martyred: “Hey, wait a sec! Everything was supposed to be easy-peasy; that’s what Jesus told me, anyway.” 

(Oh, wait. That’s right. Jesus never said anything about life becoming instantly easy when we decide to follow him).

And yet there seems to be some confusion over this point among many people, Christians and non-Christians alike.

I often find myself asking: “Why, if God’s with me, am I still getting this wrong? Why do I still struggle? Why do I do these stupid things all the time? Why do I hurt others? Why do I hurt myself? Why am I having such a hard time?”

Basically, I’m asking: “Why am I not perfect?” 

The answer, I think, is kind of simple. The reason I’m not perfect is because I am broken, and the world is broken. To be a human (whether one follows God or not), and to live on earth is to be a broken being living on a broken planet. We are incapable of perfection.

It’s like getting angry at a two year old for being incapable of eating an ice cream cone without making a complete mess. Ice cream isn’t perfect: it melts, especially on hot sunny days. And two year olds aren’t perfect: their motor skills just aren’t there yet. It would be a little unreasonable to approach this two year old and ask him or her: “What happened? Why couldn’t you finish that without dripping everywhere? How did you manage to get it in your hair?!”

That’s where God steps in. 

To continue with the ice cream analogy: I come from a family of six kids, and we used to go out regularly to get ice cream during the summer. And the particular ice cream place we’d go to would always dole out massive ice cream cones. This meant that ice cream outings had the potential to be very messy.

So to help out, my dad would “fix” our ice cream cones periodically. “Fixing” meant licking up all the drips and making the ice cream cone neat again. Sure, it was kind of nice for him and everything, but it also made things easier for the rest of us, too. Our clothes wouldn’t get dripped on. We wouldn’t have melted ice cream oozing down our hands and arms. Things weren’t instantly perfect, and we didn’t instantly become the best ice cream eaters, but it certainly made those outings just that much better.

And that’s kind of how God works with us. He steps in to “fix” things. He knows we’re incapable of perfection. He knows the conditions we live in aren’t perfect. And he wants to help us. When we pray, and when we ask for help, he steps in. 

Something we need to understand is that this isn’t God’s ideal world, either. This is at the heart of Christianity’s message. We are broken beings. This world and this life are filled with hardship. But God wants to help us.