#104. Putting God in the liner notes.

When I was in college in Birmingham, I used to attend a church called Brook Hills. One Monday in the lunch room I noticed a kid that had sung a great song at church. I approached him by the cereal and said, “That was a really good song you sang yesterday, did you write it?” He looked at me with unexpected disdain and replied, “No, God did.” And then he walked away.

I felt like such a heathen. At that point in my life I felt like God had gone silent. I wasn’t getting any word from him. He wasn’t even sending me fortune cookie length messages and this guy was co-writing songs with him? I couldn’t get God to send me a postcard with, “wish you were here” on it and he was having a Hall and Oates moment with the Alpha and Omega. I felt hopeless.

But now, I realize that sometimes we put God in the liner notes of albums I don’t think he had anything to do with. I know that in some sense, God is infused in everything in the world and as a Christian he should be woven in to every part of your day, but this kid’s song was not that good. I mean, I’ve seen God’s work. He made the Grand Canyon and the platypus, when he gets creative, he really gets creative. But sometimes, in a variation of throwing the God Card, we thank God for things I think he’d just as soon say, “whoa, whoa, whoa, that chorus is weak and don’t even get me started on that bridge. Leave my name off that song champ.”