God is Great, God is Good. . .

. . . and we thank him for our food.

This great little children's prayer says a lot in thirteen words.

Another friend of a friend is dying of cancer.  A thirteen-year-old boy from Tipton committed suicide the day before Easter.  There is no shortage of human suffering.

I've been reading the book Easter recommended to us for a lenten study.  I confess I missed most of the group discussions but I really liked the book.  It is called Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton.  Barton reads like a regular lady talking, but then inserts some very thoughtful theological insights.  And she doesn't sugar coat it--one chapter cuts to the chase of how we all have issues we need to address, and how to get right with them and God.  Everything in our spirituality is not always warm and fuzzy.

One chapter is called Discernment.  My translation is--how to find God in the moment by moment details of the day. I used to be better at this. Then I lost my Dad so suddenly and I think the toddler in me said--if I can't trust God with the life of my loved one, how can I trust God in the minutia of my days?

Barton suggests that  we can be more open to God's will in our daily lives if we believe three fundamental ideas:

God is good 

Love is our primary calling 

God does communicate with us through the Holy Spirit

I do believe these things.  I think the first one is the hardest.  It is easy to see a good God that makes a beautiful world.  Harder to see a good God that lets bad things happen.

I just circle back to the fact that there just must be a bigger picture that we can't see.

Last time I checked even our money still says "In God We Trust."

As I look out the window there is a giant elegant white bird at the pond shore--I'm gonna assume it is the Holy Spirit's way of reminding me--in this moment--that God is great, God is good.