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Reel Homilies

God Is God, and I Am Not

Episode Summary

Fr. Tim says he has figured out the secret to life: God is God, and I am not.

That simple truth is an invitation to humility. We are called to make decisions, exercise our freedom, act responsibly, and seek wisdom. But trouble begins when we treat our own judgment as higher than God’s truth or insist that our plans must be better than His.

In this Sunday’s first reading, Jeremiah speaks with startling honesty about the difficulty of following God’s call. His prophetic mission brought suffering and opposition he did not expect. Jeremiah’s lament does not mean that God deceived him. Rather, it reveals the struggle of a man learning that obedience to God can lead somewhere far different, and far more costly, than he imagined.

Fr. Tim compares that surrender to a drowning person being rescued by a lifeguard. The person being rescued must stop resisting the lifeguard’s directions and cooperate with the rescue. In the same way, trusting God does not mean doing nothing. It means recognizing our limits, receiving His help, and seeking to act according to His truth.

The spiritual principle is simple, even when living it is difficult: God, You are God, and I am not.

[00:00:00 –> 00:00:02] I may be the stupidest priest that has ever lived.
[00:00:02 –> 00:00:06] I just learned that wifi is not the internet.
[00:00:06 –> 00:00:09] Wi-Fi is the signal that connects to the internet.
[00:00:09 –> 00:00:10] Never knew that. Wow.
[00:00:10 –> 00:00:14] The wifi is a radio signal that connects to the source.
[00:00:14 –> 00:00:18] And this is literally what theology of faith is.
[00:00:18 –> 00:00:22] Faith connects us to Jesus and is healing.
[00:00:22 –> 00:00:26] Faith is not the healing. It connects us to the source.
[00:00:26 –> 00:00:27] In the gospel for this Sunday,
[00:00:27 –> 00:00:32] the woman’s faith is not the thing that heals her daughter.
[00:00:32 –> 00:00:34] Jesus heals her daughter.
[00:00:34 –> 00:00:36] I think it’s helpful for us because I think a lot
[00:00:36 –> 00:00:38] of the times we think the more faith I have,
[00:00:38 –> 00:00:40] the more healing I’ll have.
[00:00:40 –> 00:00:42] The greater the faith, the more the miracles.
[00:00:42 –> 00:00:45] Jesus is the one who heals.
[00:00:45 –> 00:00:48] Jesus is the source of miracles.
[00:00:48 –> 00:00:51] So it takes all the pressure off of ourselves.
[00:00:51 –> 00:00:54] Faith is the wifi. It connects us to the source.
[00:00:54 –> 00:00:55] This is spirit use, peace.

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Key Takeaways

  • Fr. Tim summarizes an essential attitude of the spiritual life with one simple truth: God is God, and we are not.
  • Humility does not mean abandoning reason, freedom, or responsibility. We still discern, make decisions, act prudently, and seek what is good.
  • Problems arise when we treat our own judgment as higher than God’s truth or insist on our own will against what God asks of us.
  • Jeremiah’s lament expresses the pain and difficulty of his prophetic calling. God did not deceive Jeremiah; Jeremiah struggled with the unexpected cost of obedience.
  • God can lead us beyond our limited expectations and reveal truths about our lives that we had not previously understood.
  • The lifeguard analogy illustrates cooperation rather than passivity. Like someone accepting rescue, trusting God means receiving His help and following His direction rather than resisting Him.
  • Following God’s will does not guarantee an easy or painless life. Faithfulness can involve suffering, sacrifice, and uncertainty, but God can give us a deeper peace even in the midst of those difficulties.

What This Means for Prayer and Daily Life

Most of us can say that God is God. The harder part is living as though that is actually true.

We make plans. We weigh options. We exercise our judgment. Those things are good. Christian surrender does not mean refusing to think, plan, seek help, confront injustice, or take responsibility for our lives.

The challenge comes when our plans become absolute. We can become so attached to what we think should happen that we leave little room for God to lead us differently.

Fr. Tim’s lifeguard image helps illustrate the difference. A drowning person still has to cooperate with the rescue. The answer is not passivity. It is to stop resisting the one who knows how to help and respond to the directions that can bring him to safety.

Our relationship with God requires that same humility. We act faithfully according to truth and prudence while recognizing that God sees more than we do. We may not immediately understand what He permits or where obedience will lead. Jeremiah certainly did not experience an easy life simply because he followed God. But surrender frees us from believing that everything depends on our ability to control the outcome.

When you feel yourself grasping for control this week, ask: Am I faithfully doing what is mine to do, while still allowing God to be God?

A simple prayer might be:

“Lord, You are God, and I am not. Give me wisdom to know what You are asking of me and courage to act faithfully. When I become attached to my own plans, help me trust Your truth more than my limited understanding. Teach me to cooperate with Your grace and give me the deeper peace that comes from placing my life in Your hands.”

FAQ Section: Wi-Fi, Faith and Jesus

Surrendering to God means placing our freedom and judgment at the service of what is true and good rather than treating our own desires as ultimate. It does not mean becoming passive. Christians are still called to discern carefully, make responsible decisions, seek help when needed, and act prudently.

No. Human freedom, judgment, planning, and decision-making are gifts from God. The problem is not simply having a will of our own. The danger comes when we knowingly place our desires or judgment above God’s truth. When we insist on our own will against what is good, we can harm ourselves and others.

Not necessarily. Following God can involve sacrifice, uncertainty, grief, persecution, and suffering. Jeremiah’s own life makes that clear. Christian peace is deeper than simply feeling comfortable. God can give us interior peace and hope even when obedience remains difficult.

Jeremiah’s words are a lament spoken in the midst of his prophetic suffering. He feels overwhelmed by the mission God has given him and speaks with startling emotional honesty.

The passage does not teach that God deceives people. Rather, it shows that faithful obedience may involve misunderstanding, suffering, and a gradual surrender to God’s purposes.

No. God is Truth and does not deceive us. He may lead us beyond what we expected or reveal that our assumptions were incomplete, but this is different from deception. Sometimes what changes is not God’s truth but our understanding of ourselves, our circumstances, or what is genuinely good.

 

A person being rescued has to cooperate with the lifeguard rather than resist the rescue. Likewise, trusting God does not mean refusing to act. It means receiving His help and choosing to live according to truth, wisdom, and prudence rather than assuming that our own instincts must always be correct.

No. Giving up can mean abandoning responsibility or hope. Christian surrender means continuing to act faithfully while recognizing that the final outcome is not completely within our control.

Begin with prayer and honest discernment. Ask whether what you desire is consistent with God’s truth and whether you are genuinely open to being led somewhere different. Seek wisdom through Scripture, the teaching of the Church, prudent counsel, and prayer. A useful starting point is Fr. Tim’s simple reminder: “God, You are God, and I am not.”

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