Where Were You?

Sometimes I try to link songs from the radio to the Gospel, but on the rare occasions, the song provides its own link. For a few weeks now, The Fray have been recounting the story of encountering God, and the discussion that follows.

I found God
On the corner of First and Amistad
Where the west was all but won
All alone
Smoking his last cigarette
I said, “Where you been?”
He said, “Ask anything.”

Where were you
When everything was falling apart?
All my days
Were spent by the telephone
It never rang
And all I needed was a call
It never came
To the corner of First and Amistad

Lost and insecure
You found me, You found me
Lying on the floor
Surrounded, surrounded
Why'd you have to wait?
Where were you? Where were you?
Just a little late
You found me, You found me

In the end, everyone ends up alone
Losing her, the only one who's ever known
Who I am, who I'm not, who I want to be
No way to know, how long she will be next to me

Lost and insecure
You found me, You found me
Lying on the floor
Surrounded, surrounded
Why'd you have to wait?
Where were you? Where were you?
Just a little late
You found me, You found me

Early morning
The city breaks
I’ve been calling
For years and years and years and years
And you never left me no messages
You never sent me no letters
You got some kind of nerve
Taking all that I want

Lost and insecure
You found me, You found me
Lying on the floor
Where were you, where were you?

Where were you? Where was God? Why did he not act sooner? Does God not care? These are the questions behind the hurt of the singer. So why does God not intervene in our lives? Is God silent?

The song takes the normal human position, in the accusing role. God is in the dock, on trial, and he has to give an account for himself. And yet, as we take a step back from the specific situation to reflect on the biblical evidence, we can see that it's not God who is hiding - it's us.

Remember Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eve? Our first parents doubted God's providence and word, and ate the forbidden fruit. What happened next? They went and hid. Hiding behind their fig leaves, hiding in the trees, so that God has to call out "Where are you?" It's not that God doesn't know where they are - it's to show that they have hidden themselves from God.

In many ways, we're just like that first couple. We too turn our own way, and then hide from God. Guilty, ashamed, lost, we skulk off, ignoring the God who made us and will call us to account.

But the greatest tragedy is that when tragedy does come, and many are ready to say where is God in all this, they think they have the moral high ground. To expect that God will jump at our beck and call when we hit rough ground having ignored him all along is some cheek!

Where were you God? You never left me no messages, as the song proclaims. The truth is that God is not silent, that God does not leave himself without witness, both in the world and in his word, but we don't want to listen most times. Far easier to go our own way, then cry foul when things don't turn out how we want them.

The one thing the singer gets right is in speaking to God. Far better, though, to cry out in repentance, to seek God's will, not ours, and to trust and obey in God's purposes and plans for us.