What if God doesn't have a back?

"Many people want to serve God........as advisors."

That is such a great quote and it was given to me in an email by one of my parishoners. I think it speaks volumes for how many of us view our relationship with God. There is always this sneaking suspicion that God may not know what He is doing or that maybe He has forgotten us in what surely must be a busy work day.

How many times have you looked around at your surroundings and looked up to the heavens and thought:

"Uhhhh........God. This isn't exactly what I had in mind when I said that I wanted to turn my life over to you. I was thinking more along the lines of sunny Florida or maybe this credit card debt could disappear, or a bigger house? I mean don't get me wrong...I will work for you...I just want to be paid for it. So I'll have my people call your people......let's do lunch."

That is how it works here on Earth and so of course we expect God to follow the rules. There is always a trade of services. If you scratch my back.....I'll scratch yours.

One problem: What if God doesn't have a back?

We have this huge mountain that we don't seem to be able to get over: God is bigger than all of us. We like to think of God as this nine to fiver. He gets up, takes a shower, maybe stops for a cup of coffee at McDonalds, flips open the laptop and deals with the problems of the world. If something needs to get done....He wheels and deals....making sure that everyone is on the same page.

"God...Todd is on line 1....he is willing to put some extra hours in this week....but wants to be able to get that HiDef TV which is on sale at Best Buy."

Something tells me that this is not how the whole thing works. God is our creator....He made us. Therefore we don't have the right to dictate to Him how our lives are supposed to go. We don't get to make deals, we don't get to stand defiantly and make statements of anger, we don't get to walk around like we know how the world works and make people think that we control the destiny of others.

We do get the honor of having Him as our Father. We do get the ability to fall into His arms when life gets to hard, we get to sit in utter disbelief as children are born, we get to smile warmly while watching the colors of a rainbow light up the sky, sunsets and sunrises are daily gifts we get to have, we get to live in a place that is so rich with color that we know God must have an artistic side to Him. We are given the time honored tradition of stargazing, the ability to dream, the ability to choose, the ability to give love, receive love, and make love. We can cry and smile at the same time. We can screw up and be forgiven and then screw up again...and then be forgiven again.

We get to work for a Father who loves us so much that He sent his own son to this crazy place and then had him killed in order to show us how much He truly loves us.

With all that is given to us......do we really have the right to dictate to God how we want our life to go? Do we really have the ability to control a power as great as His love?

Faith my friends......have faith that He is leading you in the direction that must be taken. Give up the need to control your life and enjoy the ride......God knows the way.

He may not have a back......but He certainly will scratch yours till the end of eternity.