Blessed Be Your Name

I must admit. When I titled my last post, I was consciously borrowing from a song by Tree63 entitled "Blessed Be Your Name". But when I typed it, I goofed. So I went back and fixed it this morning. I also got the idea that I could post a series of entries based upon that song. One for each line. Well, I won't go too far with it, but I think there's a great deal of meat to it that needs to be eaten by all of us.

Blessed be your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where the streams of abundance flow
Blessed be your Name

Blessed be your Name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be your Name

Every blessing you pour out,
I turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say...
Blessed be the Name of the Lord
Blessed be your Name
Blessed be the Name of the Lord
Blessed be your glorious Name

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

Every blessing you pour out,
I turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say...
Blessed be the Name of the Lord
Blessed be your Name
Blessed be the Name of the Lord
Blessed be your glorious Name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, Blessed be your Name

My church, a renegade Church of Christ (that still sings a capella 'cuz we like it that way!) sings this song a capella and it sounds as good - if not better - than the version on the radio. Something about hearing an entire congregation singing just... but I digress.

My 8-year-old daughter and I have discussed this at length. She is now keenly aware that the title words to this song come from the book of Job; that Job uttered these words when he lost everything he had except his lovely bride:

He said,
"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
And naked I shall return there
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the LORD."

(Job 1:21, New American Standard Version)

Can I say, "Blessed be Your Name" every time something happens to me whether good or bad? For those of you that have followed the soap opera of my life, I have finally landed a job. I start Tuesday, June 5 in a programming position. It's an awesome opportunity - a step up from the work I did five years ago, and a way to erase the last five years of not working in computers. Still, I have to remember who made it all possible. Without the Lord standing behind me, I would not have become employed.

Yesterday, while discussing the "Desert Place" with a gentleman at my church, I described how the Lord had to take me down a peg or two so I could learn a lesson. He removed everything on which I relied - my job, my education and experience (with a college degree and over 20 years experience I still could not get a job), even my health (complications from psychiatric medications and asthma). I had nothing left, save my family, and had to learn that He will hold me up. So now, I freely admit that I am not standing on my own two feet. I am in His hands. I bless the Name of Him who holds me up.

Adios,
Clay

(äd-s) [Spanish adiós, probably translated from French à dieu. (I commend you) to God  : a, to (from Latin ad. See ad-) + Dieu, God (from Latin deus. See dyeu- in Indo-European Roots).]

When I'm Found in the Desert Place...

Have you ever been there? That place where it seems God is not with you? I have been going through there recently. It is not a pretty place.

I have come to the conclusion that the Desert Place is where God sends His Green Berets for survival training. During my time in the desert, I was struggling to figure out why I was there. I thought I'd been doing pretty well in my prayer life and reading the Word. I thought I'd been doing pretty well in reflecting God's Light. But I was still lost and lonely without Him. Thus my conclusion. And, shortly after arriving at that conclusion, I find this NASA Image of the Day:

This is the Original Mercury Seven returning from Desert Survival Training. No, they're not pretty. The third from the left is, perhaps, the most famous - John Glenn.

So, here I am in the desert place. No, I haven't come out of it, I'm still here. But I have to go on about my daily life. And that includes Thursday nights with Doug at the prison. I cherish these moments with Doug - I'm there to lift him up, and always leave feeling lifted up myself. Anyway, Doug asked me about this very subject. It seems he's here as well.

We started looking up passages in scripture relating to times it feels that God is not with us. Several of the Psalms, written by a man after God's own heart include phrases about God not answering when I call. Job, described by God Himself as a blameless and upright man who shuns evil asked why God has ignored his pleas. And one passage in particular from Daniel - Daniel has fasted and prayed for three weeks seeking an answer from God. The angel tells him that he was trying to come, but the prince of Persia was detaining him and he had to get a higher-ranking angel (Michael) to help him get through.

Then I asked Doug, "Have you ever spent any time in an actual desert?" He had not. I, however, lived for two years in the Nevada desert, an hour's drive from the nearest grocery store. It was a place with little shade for the trees were few. The heat was oppressive and unbearable in the summertime. The environment was stark and barren with only sticks poking up from the desert floor. If you wanted water, there was none to be had - even an hour after a rainfall the puddles were dried up.

But even in the midst of the desert, there is amazing beauty. You can go up the mountains and find trees, water and shade. The nights are cool, and wonderful for sleeping. And springtime in the desert is an amazing time when all those dried up sticks bloom with incredible color. And don't forget that there's no humidity like there is in Houston all year long...

I told him, "If you're in the Desert Place, find a place of beauty. It's there. And that's where God is."

Then I had to fess up - I didn't come up with that line. I believe the Holy Spirit put that one on my heart. Both because Doug needed to hear it, and I did too.

Adios,
Clay

(äd-s) [Spanish adiós, probably translated from French à dieu. (I commend you) to God  : a, to (from Latin ad. See ad-) + Dieu, God (from Latin deus. See dyeu- in Indo-European Roots).]