SEEING THE EXTRAORDINARY

Month: October 2025

  • Woke Up with a Song

    I woke up this morning with a hymn on my mind.  Music often speaks to my soul and guides my day.  Sometimes the music I hear when I awake is something I had been listening to the day before.  Sometimes it is from a past church service and resonates with me.  And there are the times when the song which plays is seemingly random and just appears in my mind.  The latter was the case today.  

    It is an old hymn which I can’t remember the last time I actually sung it, though I know it really well.  And I don’t know that the song has been especially important to my life in the way many of the hymns have.  Some hymns stick with me and helped to shape and form my spiritual journey.  Some I wonder how they got in the hymnbook and have found them less than helpful.  But this one doesn’t fit in either category.  

    The hymn has a feeling of majesty and presence.  It has grandeur and feels as though it carries importance.  The hymn is “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” written by Isaac Watts.  I think it needs the boldness of the song to carry lyrics which remind us of God’s help, security, and defense.

    It is a reminder of the God who formed the earth is strong enough to conquer the things which overwhelm me.  The God who has been a safe haven for the saints who have gone before is the same God who can provide a shelter for me when I am afraid.  Time moves on so very fast for all of us, but God is not bound by time.  He is the help we need no matter what we may face.  And, this is the reminder of where our help comes from.

    Psalm 121 is a powerful scripture echoing this same message.  Where does our help come from?  Our help comes from the Lord, who made the heavens and the earth.  He is our keeper, our stronghold.  He is our HELP.

    O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come – May YOU calm our fears, renew our weary spirits, provide hope for our futures, and guide our steps.

  • God is Good?

    It’s a phrase we often hear, use and repeat.  My Dad would often begin worship with the phrase, and the congregation replying, “All the time,” to which he would say, “All the time,” with the congregation replying “God is good.”  It’s catchy.  It wakes people up.  It brings some sort of agreement.  Except, what do we do with the times when we suffer or we struggle?  What about the times when all seems overwhelming and God seems more distant than ever?  What do we do when we cannot see the goodness of God in the land of the living?

    For me, I often struggle with the phrase because the term “good” is attached to worldly attachments.  God is “good” when we can pay the bills or money comes in unexpectedly.  God is “good” when something works that didn’t work before.  God is “good” when I feel content and happy and everything is going my way (or at least my perception of my way).  God is “good” when I get what I want.  But that is a skewed perspective of good.

    I have been considering the scripture in Lamentations 3 which reads, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”  This speaks to me of God’s goodness.  This is a scripture where I can bow my head and dig my heels in to God being good.  Why?  Because God’s goodness is not dependent on my outcomes, my wealth (or lack thereof), my health, my attitude, or my sense of fulfillment.  Instead, God is good because of his steadfast love.  He is good because of mercies from him which do not end.  God is good because his faithfulness is great.  THIS is why God is good.  

    I’ll be honest, I still struggle with the phrase and you likely won’t hear me say it on a regular basis.  I won’t quickly attribute success to God’s goodness.  I will strive not to blame my lack of control on his lack of goodness.  Instead, there is a far greater chance you will find me, like the writer of Lamentations, with my soul bowed down and simply searching for hope where there seems to be none.  

    Is God good?  My hope is in his steadfast love, his endless mercies and his great faithfulness.  So I suppose the answer is a resounding yes, regardless of where I may be this day.