Yes God, But What Have You Done for Me Lately?
It is hard to be honest about this. We know, after all, that it is wrong to be apathetic and peevish toward God. We get tired of praying the same prayers for the same people day after day. Even though we know all the right doctrines about Christ dying on the cross for us, we we get bored. We can even recite the list of blessings:
- Forgiveness of sins
- Regeneration and transformation
- Adoption as God’s own children
- The gift of the Holy Spirit
- Becoming joint heirs with Christ
- Eternal life as we reign with Christ
- The promise God will never leave us or forsake us
Yes God, but what have done for me lately?
As terrible as this question is, it should not surprise us. Israel said this over and over after being delivered from Egypt miracle after miracle. The power of God was displayed as He pried Israel out the grasp of the Pharoah. Israel saw the love of God toward them, yet they complained and doubted. Despite seeing all God did to deliver them from Egypt, they doubted God could give them the victory in the promised land. They were bored with their wandering in the desert, but too afraid to enter the promised land.
We all suffer from spiritual amnesia. Familiar spiritual truths lose the power to move us. Certainly, the Israelites remembered their deliverance from Egypt—but that memory wasn’t applied to the giants of Canaan. The memory stirred no faith. In a similar way, our knowledge of spiritual truths can be emptied of all emotional and volitional content. We can know we are God’s children and yet live like orphans. We can know God has given us eternal life and yet be peeved over unanswered prayers or difficult circumstances.
God gave Israel the Passover and other festivals to help them remember what God had done and who they are. We have the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper. We have the Scripture. We have, if we seek it out, the community of saints to remind us of God’s grace. Nonetheless, I must actively practice the discipline of gratitude throughout each day. When a prayer is answered, I tend to say, “Thanks, but what about this other thing?” No matter how marvelous the answer to prayer is, my gratitude is evanescent. Only naming my blessings each morning works to realign my heart to reality.
The other day one of my sons explained how close and real God had become. He said something that brought me to tears. He said, “If God never did another thing for me, it would be enough.” My dark-night-of-the-soul battered heart wanted to say, “No son, it won’t be enough, but I am glad you feel that way now.”
My son had arrived where we should all want to live—or at least the place to which we are always returning. Jesus is not only enough, He is the ocean of goodness whose currents carry us home.
