Canter Bridge

How do we get God’s attention? How to snag some eye contact with the divine? Some face time with the Omnipotent?

If the question sounds irreverent, it’s likely because we’ve developed an aesthetic preference for not placing the question so frontally. But we still wonder.

By some lights, Jesus turned the question on its head with his succinct dismissal of the notion that spiritual cleanliness is next to godliness:

And Jesus opened his mouth and taught them, saying ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.’ (Matthew 5:2–4 ESV)

But Jesus’ teaching was hardly without precedent.

Centuries earlier, the writer of the 34th psalm knew that things turn hardly at all on our striving to get close to God. Rather, YHWH prefers the company of the broken and the crushed. He, we are told, draws near to us.

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:18 ESV)

The pages of a thousand self-help books turn to brittle yellow in the light of this observation.

By the time we long for YHWH’s attention with needy desperation, he is already there. He sneaks up on us, loiters near to our desperation, seeks out precisely the broken heart that feels most distant from him.

There is a sweet sturdiness to the truth that God’s care is closest when we are least able to run about in pursuit of it. It is as though he relieves us of the obligation of the hard chase when we lack the strength even to stand.