Wonderings--August 9

I want to share with you a prayer that I read this morning from theologian Kate Bowler. As she was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, Kate confronted two things: her failing body and the God who is always with her. She wrote about her struggles and named how it felt to be weak and worn. I hope that as you read and consider her prayer that you will find places of resonance in it. I hope you will notice where God's voice speaks to you through Kate's struggle. 

She wrote: 

"But God [you know] what it’s like to live in flesh. . . . If God too lived in a body, then God knows the ache of growing pains and the feeling of goosebumps on a brisk day and the comfort of a warm embrace. He felt the gurgle of a hungry stomach and the annoying prick of a splinter after a day of hard work. He wept over the death of a friend. Ours is a God who sneezed and rubbed His eyes when He was sleepy. Ours is a God who knew longing, heartbreak, excitement, frustration—the full range of what it means to be human . . . [and] live in a body.

So when my own body drags me down, when my muscles ache, when my worries keep me up at night, when my fear for the future leaves me motionless, when I feel lonely and exhausted and burdened, I do not worship a God who is far off.

This is a God who knows my humanity inside and out. God has counted every hair on my head (Matthew 10:30) and bottled up every tear I have shed (Psalm 56:8). Not simply because the Word formed us (Genesis 1:27), knit us together in our mothers’ wombs (Psalm 139:13), was there from the very beginning . . . but because God wore our skin."

It can feel like God does not empathize with you; He does not feel as you feel. Your theological mind can confess that God is above the daily struggles of human life--and in part you are correct. But you are also incorrect in that assumption. For God knows, and God feels, exactly how you feel right now. Jesus has been there. 

God knows, and God feels, the pains and anxieties that stalk you and the wounds that still sting you. While temptation exists to believe you walk this path alone God is beside you in this time and space. 

I wonder what this prayer says to you? I wonder what it reminds you of and how it asks you to progress with God at your side? 

Blessings