In the last post I began a story about a little girl who’s mom brought her to talk to me about her pressing question… why God had given her Crones disease. I pick up where I left off. (Again, with apologies for going over the 500-word limit I promised.)
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After asking her if a precious flower was a good way of talking about her, I asked…
“But what if I said you were a tiger instead of a flower? Would that be true also? Sure it would! You’re tough. You’re brave. You’re going after this disease with ferocious courage. In fact, that’s probably a tiger might be a better metaphor than a flower for you during this hard time.”
“In the same way we can talk about you as a flower… and a tiger; and in the same way that those analogies are true… and not true; let’s see if we think about a better analogy of God than a Father who isn’t doing a very good job taking care of his daughter.”
“Ok,” she said skeptically.
“How about instead of thinking of God as a guy in heaven somewhere, we think of God as a Song that is playing in the whole universe?”
“This God-Song is playing in your heart, in your life, in your mom’s life, at your school, in the whole world. This song has fabulous rhythm to it, one you know already (children’s church had just finished a section on the Fruit of the Spirit). The downbeat of the God-Song is love… joy… peace… patience… kindness… goodness… gentleness… and so forth.”
“I know this is a really hard time for you, sweetie. Having a disease makes us afraid, makes us hurt, makes us wonder if we’ll ever be safe. If God is a powerful father, you can’t help but ask why he let this awful thing happen to you, or at least why he isn’t stopping it.”
“But if we stop thinking of God as a Father… and start thinking of God as a Song, it causes us to ask very different questions, doesn’t it? If God is a Song and you can sense the rhythm of that Song, the question that come to mind is whether we’ll dance or not. And here’s the thing, sweetie; it is possible for you to dance to the God-Song if you have Crones… or if you do not.”
“How we think about God determines the kinds of questions we ask about our lives, our souls, our troubles, and our victories. When we’re stuck, when we’re afraid, when we’re worried, there’s a good chance we need to see God a different way than we’re used to.”
“If you think of God as a Song, the question you need answered is very different from ‘why would God do this to me.’”
“When I imagine God as a Song, a picture like this comes into my heads; image you’re at a dance, and a beautiful song is playing. Now, you have a choice. You can stand by the wall and avoid the Divine rhythm… or you can get out there on the dance floor and dance up a storm.”
“Even with this terrible disease, you can dance with love, and joy, and peace, and patience, and kindness, and goodness, and so forth.”
“Even with this terrible disease, you can listen inside your soul for the Inner Presence of God. It’s there. If you listen, it will bubble up inside you and give you all the dance moves you need. You can find God’s courage inside you. It’s one of the dance moves, and it’s there. It’s there because God’s Spirit is inside you.
You can find God’s peacefulness inside you for the same reason. It’s there because God’s Spirit is inside you.”
“All of the Fruit of God that you need during this really hard time is inside you, because God’s Spirit is inside you. You can find God’s kindness and goodness and compassion toward other people, even while you’re having Crones troubles. You can find bravery, and strength, and perseverance, and fortitude… They’re all inside you, because God’s Spirit is inside you.”
“And you can dance to the God-song, now… in this troubled time… and also tomorrow, when your troubles ebb away.”
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Again, our images of God profoundly impact the spiritual path we walk