“God Thing”
This term is used by some evangelicals as a descriptor of the nature of an event or incident or change in circumstance. The event is ascribed to God’s intervention.
Some examples of how the term is used:
A person runs into someone that they have not seen for a while and a significant or meaningful or interaction ensues.
“I ran into Alan yesterday. He is working on something similar to what we are working on. It was such a ‘God Thing’ to meet him and to talk.”
Someone has been looking for work for a considerable period of time. They get a job through speaking with a familiar stranger, a person who serves them coffee. You speak later with the person who got the job. You say,
“I heard you got a job. That is so great.”
They say, “Oh, it really is a ‘God Thing’. I was talking with my barista and they told me that they knew someone who was looking for help with the kind of work that I am interested in.” (Arguably this should be seen as a “barista thing”.)
What can be said that is good about the term?
It can sometimes be used as an expression of humility or as something that demonstrates a desire to see benevolent transcendence or as an expression of gratitude.
Many of us would agree that a consideration of and gratitude for the goodness of God is a plus, not a minus. Humble spirituality though means that we are not quite sure what is a “God Thing”. If you prayed for a person in the congregation who was sick and they recovered, was that a “God Thing”? Then what about the person who did not recover or the person who was not prayed for and still recovered?
I was helped by Kurt Vonnegut in this. Vonnegut pointed out that he did not believe in God and then said, “And if I die — God forbid — I would like to go to heaven to ask somebody in charge up there, ‘Hey, what was the good news and what was the bad news?’ The truth is, we know so little about life, we don’t really know what the good news is and what the bad news is.” (From “A Man Without a Country”)
A more helpful way than looking for “God Things”, is to seek to see God’s presence over the whole of a life, not simply over incidents. Moses encountered God in the burning bush. Church monastics hundreds of years ago pointed out that “every bush is a burning bush”.
Maturity in faith is to see transcendence even among the non-remarkable, the real stuff of each day. “The Christian (according to Karl Barth) is no heaven-storming idealist. The Christian hears God speak through every noise. God’s work is seen through all the clouds and mists.”
That becomes a prayer, “Dear God, help me to know your presence not only in the circumstances in my life, but through every cloud and mist.”
Very interesting. I don’t use the expression “it’s a God Thing” but the I do believe that God is
in all things.
He is before all things.
He is in all things.
He is after all things.
I believe that He is the Connector. He creates the tapestry that is our life.
He is our Blessed Assurance.