blessed be your name
September 12, 2009I’m definitely still on the fence about a lot of things spiritually lately. I’m finding that right now I’m ok having lots of doubts and lots of questions…possibly that don’t have answers. I think it’s ok to wonder without pinning something down right now.
So, I was listening to Matt Redman’s song the other day “Blessed Be Your Name”:
Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name
Blessed Be Your name
When I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name
And I’m sitting thinking about it a little more… We always want to assign responsibility somewhere. “Well, if something good happened it’s God and if something bad happened… God still ‘allowed’ it.” Somehow God is responsible either way. (Unless you’ve got a sin and then it’s your fault, obviously!)
What if it’s a little different then that. What if God is just slightly less personal than the “involved in every aspect of your life” way. What if a song or a verse of the Bible about that (“Blessed Be Your Name”) is more like: God is still the same when good things are happening or bad things are happening. We might feel differently towards ourselves or towards God during those times, but God’s still the same. Not even really mentioning whether God’s involved with the circumstance or not, because it’s us trying to place responsibility somewhere.
I honestly don’t know if God is involved or not with my everyday life. He certainly hasn’t answered lots of my prayers in the past (don’t even get me started on the “God must have said no”). Right now, I don’t even know if I can say I find comfort in difficult circumstances because God is there…I just don’t know.
But maybe that’s the point: God is still God no matter what we’re going through or what we’re feeling. And somehow we find that God is different from us and God just IS…no matter what. We may never be able to describe it or pin it down, but maybe even in that doubt and uncertainty it can still transform us.
In Judaism we learn that God is like a benevolent parent – always caring, always interested, always concerned – but NOT always going to get involved. Just as you watch your son learn to walk and don’t go catch him every time he stumbles, God knows we are sometimes hurt, sometimes by our own doing and sometimes at the hands of others and sometimes by unfulfilled desires, but God doesn’t always step in. Your son will trip, he’ll bump his head. Your kid will want candy at bedtime and you’ll say no. Your kids will grow and have their hearts broken and you can’t always mend them, even though as the mommy you really want to. So it is with God. Does that perspective bring any comfort at all?
Hi Robin, Thanks for your perspective. I find that much of Judaism and Christianity have similar views on God, but having been raised in the evangelical camp I think they take it overboard a little bit. Lately I’ve seen a bunch of instances of people believing God will answer their prayer for a new car or “God provided the perfect house” or just an attitude that God will take care of all my problems as long as I trust Him. And I just start having a problem with that perspective. There’s too much suffering and pain and problems in the world.
I can accept that God chooses not to get involved at times, but I guess I have trouble accepting that “God provided the perfect car for me”, but God choose not to heal someone’s sickness or remove a child from an abusive situation. Maybe it’s true and it’s just a tension to learn to live with, but for now I think maybe God’s really a bit more distant than helping you pick out your car. Or maybe the whole idea that God provided “clear direction” for each and every decision you make is just a little co-dependent anyway.
It’s definitely a comfort to believe that God is close by, but trying to give up the codependent ideas are tough when you’ve been raised with them.