FEBRUARY 7, 1986
THE BELLES
PAGE 3
9i.
We worry as though we have a
thousand years to live!
Let us rather strive after the
Gentle humor of the heart,
Which knows how to smile at
the world.
FROM THE CHAPLAIN’S PEW
“Oh God!” An unsuspecting person
at St. Mary’s might judge us to be a very
religious group from the number of
times this petition is heard. The opti
mist might assume that students at St.
Mary’s are vigilant in prayer, beginning
sentence after sentence with cries to
the Almighty.
“Oh God! Please help me pass this
test! (which I didn’t study for . . . .)”
“Oh God! Please let him call me to
night! (or any night . .'. .)’’
“Oh God ! Help me! (or my mother,
or my father, or my sister, or my brother
. . . .)”
Does this sound like your prayer life?
When you’re down and troubled, and
you need a helping hand, is that the
time you think of good old God?
For many of us, it is. God is someone
who can help in an emergency or a cri
sis. God can somehow fix things with
his powerful hand, and then once
everything is OK, disappears back to
his heavenly throne.
This is not much of a God to take into
adult life, which tends to have more dif
ficulties day to day and perhaps fewer
crises than student life. St. Paul had a
sense of this need for God to “grow
up.” When he looked back over his
youth, he realized that as a child, he
had thought, spoken, and acted like a
child, but when he grew up, he put
away these childish things. My hunch
is that God is already grown up and
we’re the ones who are still working on
it.
For God to have any reality for us, we
have to have more communication than
tense cries of “Oh God!” when things
go wrong. Think of an outfit you have
that you only wear for the very best oc
casions. When you put it on, it makes
you feel like a whole new you. But the
rest of the time, it just hangs in your
closet. A lot of people treat God like a
fancy party dress — something to have
hanging around, to make you feel won
derful when you need it, but not much
good on a day to day basis. Others find
that God is more like the most comfort
able sweater they own, something that
it truly part of them, feels natural, and
is used frequently.
The Bible gives us rnany images of
God, many possibilities for finding a
meaningful relationship with our crea
tor. In some places in the Bible, the
image of God the father is used to con
vey God’s warmth and careful protec
tion of us. In other places, God is pic
tured as a king, mighty and powerful
over other lesser gods who might claim
our attention. God is also pictured as a
mother eagle, who carries her young in
the shelter of her wings, so they can
move from place to place without fear.
God is even pictured as a human mo
ther, loving her baby and nursing a part
of people’s language about God for
thousands of years, are a far cry from
the God who appears like some sort of
divine Superman.
When a school, like St. Mary’s, is af
filiated with a church, it is because its
founders knew God in a mature way, as
protector, comforter, judge, parent,
companion. St. Mary’s has been, is
and we hope will continue to be for
many, an answer to prayer.