{"id":336,"date":"2010-08-17T08:57:12","date_gmt":"2010-08-17T08:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/08\/longing-for-god.html"},"modified":"2010-08-17T08:57:12","modified_gmt":"2010-08-17T08:57:12","slug":"longing-for-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/08\/longing-for-god.html","title":{"rendered":"Longing for God"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"marsh.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s easy to have faith in God when everything is going
\nwell. When I walk down the dirt road near our house and see the osprey flying
\nhome to their nest with a fish in his claws, when the breeze cools my body and
\nthe marsh grass glows a yellow-green and the blue of the water sparkles. When
\nPenny looks at me in the middle of the day and says, “I love you, Mom.” When I
\nam in church and the words of a praise song fill the room. When life feels
\neasy.<\/p>\n

But most days, that’s not what it feels like. It might be as
\nsimple as the kids are cranky or Peter and I are out of synch. Or it might be
\nthe real hard stuff–death and war and poverty and all the ways this world is not
\nwhat it should be. How do I have faith in God on the days when I doubt God’s
\nexistence? Or when the suffering and despair of people around me seems too much
\nto bear? <\/p>\n

It’s on those days that I need to pay attention to Psalm 42<\/a>:<\/p>\n

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O
\nGod.<\/i><\/p>\n

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. ?<\/i><\/p>\n

When can I go and meet with God?<\/i><\/p>\n

My tears have been my food day and night,<\/i><\/p>\n

while men say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” <\/i>(verses
\n1-3)<\/p>\n

On the days–or in the long stretches of time–when we long
\nfor God but God seems to be absent, this Psalm gives us a way to respond.
\nFirst, it instructs us to talk to God about it. The Psalmist says he “pours out
\nhis soul.” He demands that God, this seemingly-absent God, listen to him. And
\nhe asks all the tough questions: “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go
\nabout mourning?” This Psalm gives us permission to pray honestly. <\/p>\n

Second, the Psalmist makes himself remember that it hasn’t
\nalways felt like this: <\/p>\n

These things I remember as I pour out my soul: ?      <\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span>how I used to go with the
\nmultitude, leading the procession to the house of God, ?      <\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span>with shouts of joy and
\nthanksgiving among the festive throng. <\/i>(verse 4)<\/p>\n

He remembers times of praise, the feeling of joy, the
\npresence of other believers worshiping with him. <\/p>\n

And finally, the Psalmist is stubborn. He clings to a hope
\nin God in spite of his current circumstances. In spite of the doubt. In spite
\nof the suffering. In spite of the absence. It’s almost as if he’s trying to
\ntalk himself out of it. The Psalm concludes:<\/p>\n

Why are you downcast, O my soul?  <\/span>Why so disturbed within me?<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span>?      
\nPut your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.<\/i>
\n(verse 11)<\/p>\n

He could look back to stories of God’s deliverance of the
\nIsraelites out of Egypt after hundreds of years of suffering and waiting. And
\nwe can look back to the story of Jesus–the one whose soul was downcast, the one
\nwho cried out to God on the cross–and know that even the most desolate cry was
\nheard by God, even the most desperate prayer was answered. <\/p>\n

So on those days, in those years, when doubt and despair are
\neasier than faith and joy: Talk to God about it. Remember when it was
\ndifferent. And tell yourself (or get others to tell you) the stories of hope.<\/p>\n

 <\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s easy to have faith in God when everything is going well. When I walk down the dirt road near our house and see the osprey flying home to their nest with a fish in his claws, when the breeze cools my body and the marsh grass glows a yellow-green and the blue of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith"],"yoast_head":"\nLonging for God - Thin Places<\/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\/thinplaces\/2010\/08\/longing-for-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Longing for God - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It’s easy to have faith in God when everything is going well. 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Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}