August 19, 2017 – Devotions
Your G-d is Too Small – For Escapists Only

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.” Psalm 23

There are those who criticize religious groups because they accuse them of a form of escapism. When people find life to be too difficult and troubling, instead of dealing with the issues head on, they say that the people of the church turn away from actually dealing with their problems and instead go to G-d in prayer and worship hoping to find some comfort. In fact there is an old hymn that goes like this:

Jesu, Lover of my soul, Let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll, While the tempest still is high:
Hide me, O my Savior, hide, Till the storm of life be past; Safe into the haven guide, O receive my soul at last.

Now, this is escapism, if we take the words of the hymn at face value. The writer speaks of being lifted up and protected until the “storm of life passes”. However, in my experience of faith, this is not the way that Jesus works in our lives. And if you think that this is the kind of G-d we follow, then your idea of “G-d Is Too Small”.

Take notice in the 23rd Psalm that the writer does not say that “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil because you lift me up and out and protect me”. Instead he states “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me.” In other words, as we walk through the darkest moments of our lives, even when we are in the deepest pits, G-d does not remove us until those moments end. Instead G-d is with us throughout those moments. As Christians we do not believe that our faith keeps bad things from happening, we believe that our faith sustains us when bad things happen. And even if some bad thing ends our life, or the life of a loved one, then our faith carries us across the threshold from this existence to the next. (Themes come from the book “Your God Is Too Small” by J. B. Phillips)

Pastor Dave