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Everlasting arms

Bruce L. Thiessen

Where were you when the sun stood still? Where were you when the sky turned ill? Where were you when the sky fell down? Where were you? Nowhere to be found! Where were you when I fell apart? Where were you when I broke my heart? Where were you when I hit the ground? Where were you? Nowhere to be found! Nowhere 2B Found, words and music by B.L. Thiessen, ©1999

Why does it often seem that when we need God most, we can’t seem to find Him anywhere? If you are facing this distressing dilemma right now, you are not alone. The Old Testament prophet Elijah found himself at this same point of desperation and despair (1 Kings 19). In fact, Elijah suffered from what many psychologists would describe as “a major depressive episode, marked by suicidal ideation”. He was in this state even though he had just experienced two glorious victories: the defeat of the prophets of Baal, and the abundant rain that fell in response to his prayers.

In his depression, Elijah did not find God. Rather, God found him – brooding underneath a broom tree. In a vivid example of the interrelationship between mind, body, psyche and spirit, God sent an angel to provide food to Elijah. This was a starting point in his recovery process. It pulled him out of his depression and sustained him for 40 days and nights. Even Prozac is not always that effective!

It was great therapy, but Elijah experienced a relapse. This time he manifested not only symptoms of depression, but also what psychologists refer to as “paranoid ideation”. Once again, Elijah did not find God; God found him – hiding in a cave, as paranoid patients often do in one form or another. When God asked him what he was doing in the cave, Elijah responded, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected Your covenant, broken down Your altars, and put Your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too” (1 Kings 19:10). God was right there, but, according to Elijah’s restricted perception, God was “nowhere to be found”.

God had found Elijah, but Elijah had not yet found God. He was aware of God’s presence, but not aware of His Presence with a capital P, not aware of the overwhelming power that was sustaining him at that moment.

God, the master psychologist, did not directly challenge Elijah’s powerless, impoverished, paranoid perception. Instead, like every good psychologist, God sent Elijah on a journey in which he would discover reality for himself – the reality of God’s powerful presence. There God graciously revealed Himself to Elijah. “A great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart . . . but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper” (1 Kings 19:11-12).

This was not a hallucination, but the still, small voice of a great God. This is the same voice we often overlook because we are expecting a bold, thundering revelation. This is the whisper that inspired Elisha A. Hoffman and Anthony J. Showalter to write the hymn “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”. It is the whisper that led my wife Roxie to draw a portrait of a young man reaching out for God’s help. Like Elijah, the everlasting arms that sustain him are beyond the scope of his awareness. They cannot be detected by his defective, self-absorbed thinking – but that does not mean that they are not there.

As a psychologist, I am trained to recognize when a patient is seeing or hearing things that are not there. This signals the presence of a psychological and spiritual disturbance requiring immediate intervention. As a believer, the Bible teaches me not to ignore the opposite scenario. The Bible teaches me to recognize when someone (including myself) is not hearing or seeing something that is actually there. Although this does not necessarily require hospitalization, it also signals a psychological and spiritual disturbance – one requiring immediate divine intervention.

Is God “nowhere to be found” for you? If you can’t find God in the wind, in the earthquake or in the fire, maybe you need to broaden your search. Maybe you need to see that while you are desperately reaching out for God’s help, you may be all the while blind to the everlasting arms that are sustaining and supporting you in your time of despair. Maybe you need to lean on those mighty arms and rest in His power. Maybe, like Elijah, you need to listen for God’s gentle whisper.

Bruce L. Thiessen is a psychologist, university instructor and singer/songwriter from Sacramento, Calif. His Web site may be viewed at homepage.mac.com/drblt/.

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Last modified April 3, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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