“ GOD, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I'm an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I'm never out of your sight. You know everything I'm going to say before I start the first sentence.
— Psalm 139:1-4 (The Message)”
Response
I have a few friends who would argue that The Message is not really a Bible, but rather an author's inaccurate attempt to spoon-feed lazy Christians the Bible. Be that as it may, I like The Message because it speaks to my frame of reference better than many translations I've read. I love reading Psalms from The Message because they have helped teach me how to pray and what to pray for. This Psalm taught me to pray for the trust to allow God into my heart, to know the parts of me even my most trusted friends don't know.
Have you ever known someone — a friend, a family member, a boyfriend or girlfriend — who you could sit quietly with and (without speaking) know what he or she was thinking? That is the most amazing kind of relationship we can have with another person, a kind of relationship it takes some degree of trust to achieve. Allowing someone to know you intimately, to hear your thoughts without a word spoken, renders you vulnerable. It's a good kind of vulnerable, and it should go both ways. This is the kind of relationship we should seek to have with God.
I have heard people say that God led them to do something — to change their life, to change their outlook, to call an old friend — and I think this is what they are talking about. Sitting quietly in a room, without a word said, listening to what God speaks into their heart.
But remember that God can get to the places we don't let our best friends, spouses, and family members see — even those who understand our thoughts from across a silent room. Remember when I talked about my dark night after Easter? That's exactly the place in our hearts God wants to take over.
How amazing is it that the creator of the universe wants to know you better than your mom, your best friend, your girlfriend, your dog, or anyone else who seeks a relationship with you? This is an amazing kind of love, and it takes more trust than any other kind of relationship to accept it. I say this because you are trusting God to know you better than any of the people you can see and hear.
So my prayer today is for trust. Not just the kind of trust it takes to allow our friends and loved ones to know us intimately, but the kind of trust it takes to allow God to know us better than anyone else. Amen.