So I’m coordinating and scheduling Kid’s Worship stuff for church (Providence Church – Frisco, TX) and I’m listening to this song, Do Not Fear – Isaiah 41:10, by Seeds Family Worship. Seeds has three volumes of songs for kids and their families…but don’t be mistaken, just because the songs have little kids singing on them doesn’t mean they aren’t for you too – whoever you are.
These songs are full of truth, the Truth. Each of the songs is based on a verse of the Bible. They are incredibly repetitive and intended for teaching scripture to kids. This brings us back to who you are; who we are. Think of how we talk to puppies, children, foreigners…you know anyone we view as inferior to us for any reason, even if its just for lacking a grasp of the language. Ya, we talk to them like they’re idiots. We speak slowly (understandable) but in the case of non-English speakers (or whatever your mother tounge happens to be) we speak loudly and repetitively. Puppies and children get “soft and sweet” (until either chews something up) and foreigners get “loud;” my argument is that we all need both. Why? Because we are idiots, all of us.
Let me prove it. Remember high school? Remember college? Remember the “break” you took between high school and college to “find yourself?” Remember wide leg pants? Remember the first person you “fell in love” with? Remember the second person you “fell in love” with? Remember crying during a candle/campfire/dimly lit of some sort youth camp when you promised God that your life was His? Remember that fall semester after you got back from camp and quickly proceeded to break every promise you made to God that summer? So here’s why we’re all idiots: either God is a fraud and it takes a lifetime to figure out that we’ve been manipulated by “the man” into “loving” “Him” at various “weak” points in our lives, or, He’s for real. Now if God is for real then He must be God. God, by definition, wouldn’t change, wouldn’t make mistakes, etc. Remember, I’m not presupposing that God exists. I’m assuming we’re all idiots. Surly we can agree on this.
So here’s my feeble point – I need repetitive. I need loud. I need a constant voice to speak softly and lovingly to me like I’m an idiot, because I am. The only thing certain is that I’m a human. Someday I’m going to die. Think about that; someday I will inhale my final breath…and I will exhale. And that’s it. Its that simple. I don’t want to live in a cosmos that I create. I’m inconsistent and that’s scary.
God looks at us in this situation and he gives us Isaiah 41:10
fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
“I am your God.” Throughout history God has come to us and lovingly reminded us that He is our God. When our god is the wisdom of men, God reminds us otherwise. When our god is safety God reminds us that only He is secure. When God blesses Jacob in Genesis 35, Jacob has to tell everyone with him to put away their foreign gods; now we’re going to worship “…the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” If Jacob recognized that God had been with him wherever he had gone, why did his family have other gods in the first place? Because he was just a human, and just like us he was an idiot with foreign gods.
Listen to the song, and rest in the comfort that God’s promises are for you. You don’t have to figure “it” out on your own. Enjoy the repetition. Enjoy being a creature.
