I don't know the origin of a saying that I had posted on my office door at the college, but I would love to know the person who said it: God, it seems to me, is a Verb. In my last entry, I suggested that as we reflect on Who God has been for us, on what He has done for us, praise and thanksgiving will flow naturally from our hearts. He is in our stories! And as we share those stories with one another, we find Him once again.
Recently, someone told me her story about how difficult it was for her to carry a child full-term because of an auto-immune disorder. While most miscarriages occur in the first trimester, it would be her second trimester when her body would recognize the infant as a foreign invader and reject it. At last, she felt that she just could not go through it again and gave up. Her mother urged her to try again, and she finally agreed to do so. By this time, the doctors had figured out how to circumvent the problems caused by her disease, and she finally delivered a healthy baby boy. She said that one day, almost as soon as he started talking in sentences, he said to her, "Mommy, I saw you when I was in heaven." She was stunned, as she was not someone who had not previously talked about things like this with her child. And that was not the last time he said it. She said that on two other occasions, he said the same thing.
Clearly, not only this woman, but anyone who hears her story will be filled with praise and thanksgiving to God. Without reflection on where God has been for us and what He has done, most of us, I think, vaguely imagine God as "sitting on his throne" in heaven, watching us. However, the person who observed that God is a 'verb" got it exactly right, if we read the Psalms carefully. He is Being Itself (a dynamic, not a static, state) -- we might call it Energy Personified. And in His Being is all power and wisdom at the service of His Love. If we go through the psalms just looking for what God has done, is doing, will do for His people, we are amazed. This exercise should not be done quickly or casually, but slowly, meditatively, for the richest experience. (I may start a list in a future blog.) Or even better, make notations with dates beside the verses that describe what God has done for you in the past! He can be found in our stories.
In Psalm 18, David powerfully tells the story of fleeing for his life from Saul's army, pursuing David through the wilderness, forcing him to hide in caves for days without food and water:
The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.
He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.
It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand upon the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great. You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn.
David's response was that of praise and thanksgiving: I love you, O Lord, my strength....(read the first verse of Psalm 18.)
This morning, I had just let the cat out for her usual morning walk and then I sat down to read Psalm 107: ....they were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. Suddenly, there was a loud clap of thunder and a torrential downpour from seemingly nowhere, and I heard a loud wail on the back porch. I leaped up to rescue the poor cat who does not understand or appreciate such disturbances to her schedule --- and the lesson was not lost on me. If I, ungodlike that I am, will rush to rescue a cat in distress....if we, dense as we are, will not allow our children to suffer if we can intervene to save them....how much more will our heavenly Father leap to our defense when we are in distress? And how grateful will we be when He opens the door for us?
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