Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Incredible God

Irony can be cruel.

That's why I struggled with writing this post. I don't want to come across as cynical, insensitive, or mean. Maybe I won't be able to help doing that no matter how I say this.

Here goes . . .

I went to church again this past Mother's Day; my mom asked me to go with her as a Mother's Day gift. How could I say, no?

During service, the choir sang a song that was totally new to me entitled Incredible God. A beautiful song, I admit. The atmosphere in the sanctuary became electric as the choir graciously and passionately sang praises to God.

As for me, I was a spectator. And while sitting there in my pew, I wondered if they noticed the irony within their words of worship.

The word incredible primarily has two connotations:


Astonishing, amazing, awesome, miraculous, and wonderful

or

Implausible to the point of disbelief, far fetched, and unsubstantial


I know they meant to express that God is amazing and his character is awesome. His miracles are incredible in the sense that they are wonderful. His Divine Nature is unsurpassed. In this sense, all that he does is incredible.

You know . . . believable by faith, while still being amazing and wondrous.

That's the kind of incredible they meant.

Without saying, the choir certainly didn't mean that God was incredible in the sense that the case for God seemed flimsy, unsubstantiated, or far fetched in their opinion.

Soon the song was finished. Then the sermon came and went. And finally, the service came to a close.

People began to pour out of the sanctuary as the congregation disbursed. As I began to shuffle my way out of the sanctuary like everyone else, I noticed a man slumped over in a corner, breathing laboriously. Ushers had surrounded him and were trying to keep him responsive by rubbing his chest and talking in his ear. This scene went largely unnoticed by the congregants as they left the sanctuary.

An ambulance had already been hailed and eventually came to take him away to the hospital.

I don't know his condition, but I certainly wish(ed) him well. I really, really hope he is okay.

But during all of this, I couldn't help but wonder . . . where's that incredible God everybody was singing about earlier? Was this whole scene unnoticed by God, too?

At that point, I couldn't help but think to myself that God is incredible after all.
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