Where does the love of God go?

Today is the 50th anniversary of the tragic sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior.  The best-known cultural connection to that event is the song by Gordon Lightfoot, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”  A quick search on YouTube brings up several documentaries about both the wreck and the production of the song.  I watched one of them and two details about the song jumped out at me.  First, the album version of “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” is the first take that Lightfoot and his band tried while in the studio.  They had never practiced it together as a group.  The guitars and drums came in when Lightfoot nodded to start playing - and then they basically improv-ed it.  They did try several more takes, but all of them lacked something that was in the very first take.  THAT is amazing musical talent.

There is a consensus that the most haunting line of the song is, “Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?”  It is a question which resonates with all of us.  We have all been in those situations when life seems to make time stand still.  We plod along blindly, disoriented and lost.  We just want it to stop.  We want stability and security. We wonder, “Where is (the love of) God?”

Before we jump on the religiosity bandwagon (“God is good, He is faithful, let go and let God.”), let’s acknowledge that even the psalmists asked this perplexing question:

How long, O LORD?  Will You forget me forever? (Psa. 13:1)

My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?
Why are You so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? (Psa. 22:1)

My tears have been my food day and night, 
while they say to me all the day long, "Where is your God?" (Psa. 42:3)

It is difficult to understand the goodness of God when evil and brokenness are ever-present realities.  Lightfoot asks an important question that we cannot allow to be swept away with clichés and platitudes.  The psalmists didn’t.  In their distress, they were honest about their angst.

“Where does the love of God go?” is an important question which deserves an honest, thoughtful answer.  Let’s be clear:  this is perhaps one of the hardest philosophical questions with which we can wrestle and there are a LOT of people out there, smarter and more articulate than I, who can offer helpful insights.  My suggestions here are just a starting point for wrestling with this issue.  One Monday Morning Minute is not going to resolve this issue.  Where does the love of God go?

1.  Which God?  It is important that we clarify about whom we are talking.  There are many perceptions, presumptions, and assumptions about deity.  Let’s be sure we are talking about the God who has made Himself known through Jesus Christ (who IS God), the pages of Scripture, and the creation around us.

2.  What is love?  We can answer this only once we have a clear understand of “Which God.”  The God of the Bible is loving (John 3:16).  But what is the nature of His love?  It is the act of giving of Himself to provide for our greatest need, even when that giving evokes unimaginable pain.  Jesus’ suffering was real.  It is love immeasurable.  Sometimes love includes pain.

3.  Why pain?  Why does God’s love often seem absent?  This is probably the hardest question to answer unless we accept the truths of Questions 1 & 2.  Because of the brokenness and dysfunction in the world (created by our rebellion against God), pain, loss, suffering, and grief are part of our reality.

Please understand;  I’m not trying to trivialize these important questions.  This is just a starting point to help us process those moments when the waves overwhelm and our pillows are made of tears (Psa. 6:6).  Pain is real.  It is also purposeful.  God used it to help Job (and all those who followed after) remember our Creator’s sovereign authority over all things.  “Man up, Job, and explain these things to me” is what God said to him.  Job responded with worshipful humility (Job 38-42).

Here are the conclusions of the psalmists:

But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me. (Psa. 13:5-6)

He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted,
 and he has not hidden his face from him, 
but has heard, when he cried to him. (Psa. 22:24)

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. (Psa. 42:11).

Where does the love of God go?  For those whose faith is in Him, it goes straight to our hearts and minds to sustain and comfort us.  It gives us hope and reminds us of His presence.  We are never abandoned.

No doubt you will hear Lightfoot’s some time today.  Later, when you get a chance, follow it up with this.

It can be well with our souls.