Who's the Boss?

June 13

We can be very flip about God. Perhaps I should speak for myself here: I can be very flip with God. Sometimes I wonder why He suffers me as He does. I do not deserve His patience with my foibles that overtake me with very little provocation. Perhaps the worst of them, at least regarding Him, is my determination to ‘be in charge’.

I want to know ‘Why?’ I want to know ‘When?’ I want to understand the inequities I think I perceive—even though I know my finite mind cannot begin to drink in the concepts of fairness or justice from the eternal vantage point that He has—but which has not been given to me.

And in my quest to ‘understand,’ or perhaps more pointedly, ‘to be in charge,’ I interrogate God until I am reminded during a lucid interval to my folly that what He said to Job applies also to me: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Declare if you have understanding” Job 38:4.

I am further reminded of what He said to Moses when He met him at the burning bush: “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground” Exodus 3:5. He allows me into His presence, because He loves me; but it behooves me to bow before Him, recognizing that He, not me, is God.