I will Carry You

 

"Even to your old age I am the same, even when your hair is gray I will hear you; It is I who have done this, I who will continue, and I who will carry you to safety." Isaiah 46:4

It is nice to remember that we will never be forgotten by God. We forget this so often it is God who has to remind us. We are like petulant children, wanting attention, wanting our own way. And God says, I hear you. Be patient. 

I once thought that with all the ways God blessed my life, I would never forget his generosity. And then another difficulty would happen, and I had to learn it all over again. And again. I came in time to accept that past trust does not breed present trust. We have to draw upon it each time. Like a car that needs to be filled with gas on occasion.

I find it comforting to remember that God is keeping us in mind. 

When God breaks the rules

I'd like to offer just a short thought today.

Richard Rohr writes in The Naked Now:

"Good theology always protects God's total freedom, and does not demand that God follow our rules. Jesus does this explicitly in John's Gospel several times: 'The spirit blows where it wills. You can hear and see it by its effects, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes" (3:8).

What does this mean? It means that the rules we make are not the rules that God follows. In fact, every time God forgives or shows mercy, God breaks the rules of justice and accountability. God steps outside our concepts of what should be.

This is what we call grace. In our world, we want a tit-for-tat universe. God does not follow this concept. The spirit of God flows where it wills, including letting the sun shine on the wicked as well as the righteous (though I doubt very much any of us are righteous), lets the rain come down on the just and the unjust. In fact, God's generosity is scandalously because it can be found even in the failure of sin. Simply put, there is no place left where God cannot be found!

So if God breaks the rules, what does that tell me? That the spirit of God flows where it wills. And who am I to judge that grace?