I DON'T KNOW BETTER

Hume Lake Winter Camp.  10th grade.  Big hair matted down under snow hats.  Pegged jeans a-plenty.

My best friend Kelly and I were in the front row for church camp when the worship leader led us through a familiar song--but in an unfamiliar way.  He sang our church group favorite "Ain't Nobody" in a slightly different rhythm than our youth group band usually did.

Kelly and I looked at each other with wrinkled noses and said, "He's singing it all wrong!"  And then, being the super awesome (and mature!) 15-year olds we were, we began to sing the song the way we were used to singing it.  Loudly.  And only a few feet in front of the worship leader.  

Later, we mentioned to our youth pastor how the worship leader had totally messed up the song. 

"Well, that's interesting, seeing as how he WROTE that song," he replied.

(Cringe.)

How obnoxious we were to try and correct the one who actually wrote the song.  Who did we think we were?

And on a far greater scale, why do I think I need to correct God when I think He's getting it wrong?  I'm embarrassed to admit it, but there are times I think for a split second that I know better, and that God would be wise to operate from my perspective. 


But, good heavens, I do NOT know better.  I do not!! If left to my own ways, I would have things royally botched up in a heartbeat.


When I try to sing God's own song back to Him in any other way than the way He wrote it, I'm putting myself on the throne.  I'm saying I'm wiser than the only wise God, more knowing than the omniscient One.  What bold and brazen arrogance.

We have to trust God alone.  Not our hearts, which lead us astray and deceive us.  We have to trust the LORD.  The One who wrote a glory-drenched story of love and redemption.  The One who wrote our lives into existence.  The One who wrote you and me on His hands.


We get to be in on the song He penned.  We get to sing along.  But let us not be so arrogant as to think we know how to sing it better than the One who wrote it.

As for God, His way is perfect;

the word of the LORD is flawless.

Psalm 18:30

God is God and I am not,
I can only see a part of the picture He's painting
God is God and I am man,
so I'll never understand it all,
for only God is God.
God is God, Steven Curtis Chapman

*  For another post on trying to intervene on God's behalf, check out Messing Up the Blessing.