By the Waters of Babylon – Ps 137:1
An old friend of mine, from seminary days, tells about a time, years ago, when he was in a horrible car accident. His car was totaled, and when he woke up for the first time days after the crash; he was in a hospital bed in a strange hospital. There was no one in the room as he woke so he felt himself over gingerly to see if there were any injuries. Then he looked around the room and saw, on the windowsill, an official-looking chart. He carefully got out of the bed and made his way to the window. As he looked over the chart, he found his name and then the words “condition critical”. The words shocked him. He crept even more carefully back to his bed. Leaning back carefully, he took stock of his situation. “Well, there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it. So, I throw myself completely into your hands, Lord. Do what you wish with me.”
My friend says that he never has felt such a sense of relief and joyful daring as he took his “leap of faith” into God’s hands and laid back to relax into the safety of the everlasting arms.
My friend calls that feeling, which he has sought to practice throughout his life, his “theology of failure”. In life’s circumstances you trust, you leap, you dare to fail, to lose, to miss out. But at least, in God’s Name, you dared.
