What If?

Her fingers seemed to bounce off the piano keys as she played the song she'd just finished writing. With a lighthearted sound and thoughts of cheerfully walking down the street moving into the often harsh reality of circumstances only to be carried farther on, into the presence of God filled with peace, the song captured my heart and brought tears to my eyes. All I could do was say it was "perfect" and "beautiful" and affirm the truth it held. The song no doubt has a name but I can't tell you what it is; I don't remember. It isn't published or (professionally) recorded (yet) so you'll have to wait but it won't stop me from expounding on the topic now.

She* wrote:

"When life is going bad and
you walk through earth's trials,
When all you seem to have is no clue,
When nothing seems to make sense and there seems to be no end,
it seems like God has stopped doing good,

Consider--what if?
What if God was shifting things around you
to guide you and to break through to you?
What if God was shifting things to make room
for even more good things to give to you?"

About the same time I heard this song I'd participated in a discussion that I don't recall anywhere close to its fullness. We considered a hard, painful, trying situation and wondered where, how, and perhaps if God was working.

(Side note: Let's be honest, whether it was about paying a stack of bills, dealing with (bad) living arrangements, health issues, or any number of other challenges and circumstances that come our way, we've been there. We've asked the question. We prayed in faith and we've prayed in doubt. We've wondered and waited, hoping that God was hearing and answering our prayers.)

Knowing that God uses people, someone shared the thought that as we pray, trust, and wait God is indeed working. He may have been moving mountains and he may have been moving hearts, but he was moving. Sometimes getting our attention, shifting us (people) around, and orchestrating things takes time. (Can I get an amen?) It was proposed that maybe that's just what God was doing... moving hearts, moving money, moving people into various places to deal with that very situation.

One of the many things I like about God is that he does use people. He allows us to participate in history. One might even contend that he needs us. Out of deep love for us, he limited himself and gave us free will. So we are invited to join in the story - to right wrongs, to proclaim freedom to the captives, to bring mercy, justice, and healing by his grace and Spirit in places where our depravity is shown.

I don't know where this hits today: if you're on the end waiting, praying, and maybe even feeling a bit desperate or forgotten (you're not!). Or maybe you're on the other end and God is moving you to be the answer to someone's prayers. Maybe Ghandi was speaking truth when he said "you must be the change you want to see in the world."

If you are the latter, please be moved. Be obedient, even if it seems a bit absurd.

If you're the former, and maybe for everyone my thought and challenge for you (and me) today, is just the thought of how the song* ends:

"So fall back into the goodness of God
So fall back into the goodness of God
So fall back into the goodness of God towards you"


*(c)2010 Sarah Muy