Credo

God seems to be making an occasional guest appearance on television these days. For those of us who are committed to God that is in some ways a good thing. Too often television shows, and movies, go about their merry way solving problems, overcoming tragedies, experiencing true love, and analyzing both humans and nature without any reference at all to a divine reality who is intimately involved in "the course of things." Its not that God has always been absent or ignored in the entertainment industry, not at all. I have heard the divine Name mentioned again and again, though more often than not as a slang word or in a curse. I wonder if the Buddhists some-times take Buddha's name "in vain.." I don't know. [P.S. To take God's Name in vain also means appealing to God without any serious thought of following through with a life of righteousness.]

But when we invoke God's Name in sincerity, what do we mean? That is an important question. What do we really believe about God, if we believe at all? I have thought often about my answer to that question, although because I have been a professional minister all my adult life some think I just sit around swallowing creeds all day long hook, line, and sinker. Yet in my reading of Christian spirituality I have found time and again that very spiritual people have often wrestled with God, even when they loved God and tried their best to obey God. To tell the truth their quandaries about God have been a relief to me and at the same time have helped me to hold on to God when I was tempted to let Him go and just sit around in my misery, sulking and complain-ing.

I don't know what you think about God in your more reflective moments. Oh, I know we haven't addressed the notion of whether God exists or not, but that is not my purpose in writing this "Two Cents Worth." God is at the very beginning of my "credo" (my "belief") about life. I don't try to prove God exists, I just worship God and take pleasure in thinking what God is like and what God is doing (which is at times very puzzling to me). And because I am Christian I believe God is all tied up in the life and ministry of Jesus, again something I cannot wholly understand or explain. I cannot address here what this means for other religions. God only knows.

At the heart of my credo about God is the firm conviction that God is always with us, that God wants and works for the best for us, and that God is protective love. Is that a mouthful or not? Do those affirmations at times strain us to the breaking point? I know they do. A lot of people have rotten lives; they live at the top of the pain pile. I have not yet lived where they live most of the time. Yet to those who have hollow faces, those who do not know if they will live or die today, those who can barely make it from room to room, and those who seem to have no one to help, no hope of justice or relief, I still say "God is good." There is no use saying that to the well-fed, the cream of the crop, the best and the brightest. They already live most of the time in a world of blessing, whether they know it or not.

But my credo is for everyday life, and for those whose lives are miserable. My credo is for those who must make absurd affirmations about God's goodness and God's providence. My credo cannot be explained by mere human calculation. The objective side of my credo died on a cross after being falsely accused. All this is above me, yet I believe and believe strongly. God is good; God works for our good; God will bring our lives to a good end. Life is so difficult at times that I wince when I hear God's Name spattered all over the screen. Yet I know God is at work for the blasphemer as well as the blessed. Hooray for God!

Jerry Mercer