the awesomeness of God

In 1 chronicles chapter 13 God kills Uzzah.

I never really understood this before because it's not very nice to think about God's anger, especially if it might be directed towards me! - You know, God striking you down, thunder bolts from heaven etc.
This time I read it differently. Mainly because I had just had a conversation with my friend and she told me, 'sometimes you have to make brutal choices for God.' 
No one likes this type of talk. 
Only I know, for me, right then and there, she was dead right.

It struck me this time reading about Uzzah, God does the same- he makes brutal choices too- because being God he would not ask something of me that he wasn't prepared to do himself.

This is a demonstration of the awesomeness of God. 

It might make me angry, it might make me afraid but still, it literally is awesome.
And it struck me that I want the awesomeness of God: the minute I fall to my knees and beg for mercy, I want the awesomeness of God when my heart is broken or I'm in trouble or if there is something in my life I can't deal with. If I want God to deal with me; I have got to accept all aspects of him. 
How else could he deal with my life? How else could he change my mind, my heart, my wilfulness, unless he had killing power? 
I'm going to want the awesomeness of God when I'm dying. 

The fact is we have difficulty accepting the many facets of the personality of God! 

1 Chronicles is pretty unrelenting, David has what you call, 'taken his eyes off Jesus,' how that translates is David has stopped praying and started thinking he knows what God wants and it's the same as he wants.
It is a terrifying fact that as a Christian when I stop praying I become more deaf and more blind than I ever was before. 
So when God kills Uzzah, David has a wake up call, he feels anger and fear and then he stops...and he prays.

1 Chronicles 13:9 When they came to the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark, because the oxen stumbled. 10 The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah, and he struck him down because he had put his hand on the ark. So he died there before God.