Blessed Be Your Name

One of my lesser known talents is that during university I served as a worship leader for one of our local college ministries.

A whole lot of the music we used had some really bad theology. Like, really, really terrible.

However, a few of the songs were dripping with scripture - much like our Book of Confessions - and I can still find myself singing them from time to time.

There was one song in particular that was based on the psalms that we sang the night before I left to go home for Holy Week my senior year. My Grandpa, a mainstay in my childhood and the last of the original-four grandparents, was dying.

It had been years, over a decade in fact, since someone that close to me had passed. And I was not sure what to do with myself.

Yet there I was singing: "Blessed be your name when the sun's shining down on me, when the world's 'all as it should be' - blessed be your name. Blessed be your name on the road marked with suffering, though there's pain in the offering - blessed be your name..." And so many days since, I still do.

There is a hard truth deep within scripture that we often do not like to see: God remains God not matter what may come. And we remained blessed through the good times and the bad. So, we are meant to give thanks to God.

Now, before you jump down my throat or start applauding in agreement, let me explain what I mean.

The reason we are blessed is not because of the suffering. Never because of the suffering. That is a misnomer that is far too often toted to get people to stay in line.

Nor does my saying God is God mean that I believe our God somehow is above reproach. There are a whole lot of times in scripture our God does not look too good - though I would argue that was more about the humans writing, but I digress.

What I am saying is that we are blessed no matter where we find ourselves because our God is there with us. That is who our God is. In joy and sorrow, plenty and want, sickness and health (yes, I intentionally chose those words), our God is right there in the thick of it. Holding us. Carrying us. Wrestling with us. Walking with us. Giving us strength to carry on.

And for that reason, we give thanks. Because God is there.

See you for thanksgiving this weekend!

Blessings,

Rev. Janie