This is a preview for Rob Bell’s latest Nooma, “Open.” I watched this on Monday and really enjoyed it. In this clip, Rob voices something that has been bugging me for a while: why do we so often use the phrase “God showed up”? It seems like one of those hip Christianese things we like to say: “man, we’ve been praying about this mission trip, and God really showed up in a big way.”
I feel like a grouchy old man when I hear this. My gut churns a bit, and I think, “what do you mean God showed up? Isn’t God everywhere? Doesn’t He know everything? Is He like Baal or Zeus, off doing his own thing, until our supplications make him finally pay attention and sort of reluctantly do some magic? Are we surprised — like whoa, God, I didn’t think you got the invitation, but you showed up, dude!?”
Ok, I am a grouchy old man. But I do think there’s something subtle here that is good to correct. I feel like we lose something of God’s majesty, wisdom, and mystery when we say something like “God showed up.” I like to think that God is fully there even when it seems to me that He hasn’t shown up. When I pray for my son’s disability to be healed, and it isn’t; when I pray for justice in the world, and there doesn’t seem to be much of it; when I hear a story on the BBC world news about the global sex slave trade and how little can actually be done about it; when I study the Bible in depth and find it to be unruly and untameable, often more of a challenge than a clear guide; when I look at the list of things I hope to accomplish in life and realize that, at age 42, I’ll never succeed in all of it; when I consider the precautions I have to take to avoid giving in to the disease of depression — in all this and more, God doesn’t have to show up, he’s there, just as much as when He opens doors I thought were sealed shut or blesses me with health and success, as He often does.
One reply on “God Showed Up?”
“God showed up”. Kind of like Forrest Gump and Lt. Dan up on the mast shouting at the storm.
What would be more appropriate language? “God blessed us with experiencing His presence, of which we are sometimes unaware, but which is of course constant” seems a little unruly.