Hello, my name is Blake Shipp. My wife, Rachel, and I have been married for twelve years and we have two terrific children, Addison and Hayden. My wife and I are originally from Austin, Texas. I have been serving as the Equipping Pastor here at Browncroft for two years. 

 

Reflection 

I was talking to a friend the other day when they asked me an interesting question. “Blake, who is God for you, really?” I had to think for a moment. Who was God for me? I hadn’t thought about it much. I guess not many of us do. I suppose most of us just form a portrait of God as we move through life and keep it somewhere beneath the surface. The more I thought about the question, the more I realized how important it was, for my image of God was shaping how I related to God. I needed to dust off my image and bring it to the surface, making sure my image of God and who God really is are one and the same. 

 

The more I think about who God is for me, the more I realize that for most of my life, God has been the judge, the one who sits on the throne high and exalted. This judge wears a frown of displeasure with His people. His is not pleased with who we are and what we are doing. I think that image comes some from my own background and some from texts like the one we read today. It is pretty hard to miss the displeasure of God in the text.  The more I read the text the more I wonder if displeasure is really the dominate image of God. The more I contemplate and allow the text to sit with me, the more I see God in a new way. Sure, God isn’t really happy that the people of Israel turned away from Him, and sure there were consequences for abandoning God. There always are. When we go our own way, when we choose to be our own God we find out pretty quickly the limits of our own power and influence. I see something else in God. I see God holding out hope, God holding out the promise of redemption. I see a God who is full of love and compassion. Why else would He send judges, one after another to deliver the people, to try to woo them back to Himself? If God were an angry judge, why would He relent because of the groaning and suffering of His people? God didn’t give up on His people, even though they seemed to forget and give up on Him. He wasn’t sitting on the throne ready to zap them. He was sitting there weeping, reaching out to them again and again, trying to bring them back to Himself. That’s a new God for me. As I read the text for today, I am challenged first and foremost to reconsider my image of God. Do I see God as one who is constantly reaching out, constantly wooing me back, or is He something else to me? Will I look in the ordinary events of my life to discover who He is? Whoever He is for me is important, for this image will guide the way I approach and relate to Him. It might just determine whether I turn back at all. Second, I am challenged to consider my own life. Am I seeking to go my own way? Am I abandoning God, not just in the big things but in the ordinary things of life? Am I seeking to remember Him in all my ways? I hope that today, you too will consider these things. May God become as real and present for you today as He is becoming for me. 

 

Your fellow traveler,  

 

Blake