{"id":1283,"date":"2011-06-17T11:00:16","date_gmt":"2011-06-17T15:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flunkingsainthood\/?p=1283"},"modified":"2011-06-16T14:25:19","modified_gmt":"2011-06-16T18:25:19","slug":"wake-up-god-and-get-the-hell-out-of-bed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/wake-up-god-and-get-the-hell-out-of-bed.html","title":{"rendered":"Wake Up, God, and Get the Hell Out of Bed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In doing the Twible<\/a> recently I\u2019ve come across a whole genre that I like to call the \u201cWake Up, God, and Get the Hell Out of Bed\u201d Psalms. These are the Psalms for when God feels impossibly far away at best and nonexistent at worst. These are the Psalms for when we are suffering.<\/p>\n

The African American writer W. E. B. Du Bois<\/a> expressed this beautifully in a litany of grief a century ago:<\/p>\n

Keep not Thou Silent, O God!<\/em><\/p>\n

Sit not longer blind, Lord God, deaf to our prayer and dumb to<\/p>\n

our dumb suffering. Surely Thou, too, art not white, O Lord, a<\/p>\n

pale bloodless, heartless thing!**<\/p>\n

\u201cDumb to our dumb suffering.\u201d That says it all, doesn\u2019t it? When God is silent, it\u2019s harder than ever to discern the reason for suffering that appears senseless. When God is \u201cdumb,\u201d our pain is also dumb.<\/p>\n

So get the hell out of bed, God.–JKR<\/p>\n

P.S. I can buy you an iPod alarm clock if you need one.<\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 89: G, why would you create me just so my foes can Slushie me? Will you hide yourself forever? I\u2019m not getting any younger here.<\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 90: Teach us to # our days. Also, make us glad for every single day you\u2019ve punished us. We\u2019re learning a lot from it, really.<\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 91: G\u2019s CV says he\u2019ll deliver, cover, protect, answer, rescue & extend life.\u00a0 With action verbs like that he should be CEO Deity!<\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 92: It is good to give thanks to G. Good thing we\u2019re not like those eejits who can\u2019t appreciate anything. They are SUCH losers.<\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 93: G is the king over all creation, in case you missed it. Not Elvis. Not Michael Jackson. Not even Budweiser, a close 2nd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 94: Yo, God of vengeance! You say that those you discipline will be happy. Please, make my enemies FANTASTICALLY<\/em> happy. Today.<\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 95: Kneel before Zod. I mean, God. Don\u2019t be stubborn like that time at Massah in the wilderness. That did NOT end well, people.<\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 96: Sing, sing, sing! Tell all the good stuff that G\u2019s done. P.S. Ocean, sky, & fields: be sure to join in on the chorus, OK?<\/p>\n

#Twible Ps 97: In case you imagined from the last few happy Psalms that G was a sweet-little-pushover-Grandma-styled god, think FIRE. Oh.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

**W.E.B. Du Bois, \u201cLitany at Atlanta,\u201d 1906, p. 425 of The Seventh Son: The Thought and Writings of W. E. B. DuBois<\/em>, vol. I, ed. Julius Lester (New York: Random House, 1971)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In doing the Twible recently I\u2019ve come across a whole genre that I like to call the \u201cWake Up, God, and Get the Hell Out of Bed\u201d Psalms. These are the Psalms for when God feels impossibly far away at best and nonexistent at worst. These are the Psalms for when we are suffering. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[1143,22,21,143,456,457,458,459,460,461,462,463,464,70,339,465,1145,72],"class_list":["post-1283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-twible","tag-bible","tag-flunking-sainthood","tag-jana-riess","tag-old-testament","tag-psalm-89","tag-psalm-90","tag-psalm-91","tag-psalm-92","tag-psalm-93","tag-psalm-94","tag-psalm-95","tag-psalm-96","tag-psalm-97","tag-psalms","tag-psalms-of-lament","tag-psalter","tag-twible","tag-twitter-bible"],"yoast_head":"\nWake Up, God, and Get the Hell Out of Bed - Flunking Sainthood<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/wake-up-god-and-get-the-hell-out-of-bed.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wake Up, God, and Get the Hell Out of Bed - Flunking Sainthood\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In doing the Twible recently I\u2019ve come across a whole genre that I like to call the \u201cWake Up, God, and Get the Hell Out of Bed\u201d Psalms. These are the Psalms for when God feels impossibly far away at best and nonexistent at worst. These are the Psalms for when we are suffering. The…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/wake-up-god-and-get-the-hell-out-of-bed.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Flunking Sainthood\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-06-17T15:00:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-06-16T18:25:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flunkingsainthood\/files\/2011\/06\/wake-up-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jana Riess\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Wake Up, God, and Get the Hell Out of Bed - Flunking Sainthood","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/wake-up-god-and-get-the-hell-out-of-bed.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Wake Up, God, and Get the Hell Out of Bed - Flunking Sainthood","og_description":"In doing the Twible recently I\u2019ve come across a whole genre that I like to call the \u201cWake Up, God, and Get the Hell Out of Bed\u201d Psalms. These are the Psalms for when God feels impossibly far away at best and nonexistent at worst. These are the Psalms for when we are suffering. The…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/wake-up-god-and-get-the-hell-out-of-bed.html","og_site_name":"Flunking Sainthood","article_published_time":"2011-06-17T15:00:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-06-16T18:25:19+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flunkingsainthood\/files\/2011\/06\/wake-up-300x225.jpg"}],"author":"Jana Riess","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/wake-up-god-and-get-the-hell-out-of-bed.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/wake-up-god-and-get-the-hell-out-of-bed.html","name":"Wake Up, God, and Get the Hell Out of Bed - Flunking Sainthood","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/wake-up-god-and-get-the-hell-out-of-bed.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/wake-up-god-and-get-the-hell-out-of-bed.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flunkingsainthood\/files\/2011\/06\/wake-up-300x225.jpg","datePublished":"2011-06-17T15:00:16+00:00","dateModified":"2011-06-16T18:25:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/#\/schema\/person\/fe5046ba89e9602d4de4c0e9b4ef53f8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/wake-up-god-and-get-the-hell-out-of-bed.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/wake-up-god-and-get-the-hell-out-of-bed.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/wake-up-god-and-get-the-hell-out-of-bed.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flunkingsainthood\/files\/2011\/06\/wake-up-300x225.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flunkingsainthood\/files\/2011\/06\/wake-up-300x225.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2011\/06\/wake-up-god-and-get-the-hell-out-of-bed.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wake Up, God, and Get the Hell Out of Bed"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/","name":"Flunking Sainthood","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jana Riess","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/#\/schema\/person\/fe5046ba89e9602d4de4c0e9b4ef53f8","name":"Jana Riess","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/954\/9541c99a399647166f0db1fe22b238ecx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/954\/9541c99a399647166f0db1fe22b238ecx96.jpg","caption":"Jana Riess"},"description":"Jana Riess is the author of Flunking Sainthood, a 2011 book about failing at twelve different spiritual practices. She is also currently working on The Twible, a three-year Twitter project with humorous daily Bible updates for your amusement (find her on Twitter as @janariess). She has a few silly degrees from swanky schools but was never once able to climb the rope in gym class. Her spiritual director is Buffy the Vampire Slayer.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/author\/jriess"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1285,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283\/revisions\/1285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}