God Be In My Head
Yesterday was an “odds and ends” day. You know the kind of day where one thing after another pulls focus and you do sort of 20-30 minutes on any given thing that really needed about an hour. People, tasks, emails, phone calls – all of these have peppered my days. Thankfully, nothing terrible has cropped up, but each one required a little of my time.
I don’t love these days, but I don’t mind them either. The variety of things keeps my interest, and the hours move along quickly. But I also never feel like I’ve gotten very much done (and we all know I love a good ‘to do’ list with checkboxes). I managed to get enough done, so it’ll have to do.
As I write this, I wonder where God was in my day yesterday. Was it in the conversation I had with someone who was asking for prayers for family members? Probably… but I was also taking notes on names and prayer requests, so perhaps I wasn’t as attuned as I could have been. Was it in the organizing of VBS supplies? Might have been, though I was also focused on looking for specific things in the materials. Maybe God was in the driving of my kiddos around? Very likely God was there, but I was definitely not looking for God in the car, since I was annoyed that the teenager’s plans changed a few times which meant more driving for me.
I’m sure God was present with me (as is always the case) and I’m sure I was not looking or taking time to notice. I missed the opportunity to notice God in action in the moment.
When I sang in the Duke University Chapel Choir, at the conclusion of each Sunday service, we would stand around the outside of the congregation and sing a benediction. In the old grey stone cathedral, the mingling of lifted voices was very moving – to me and to many. The benediction song was the same each week: God Be in my Head. The lyrics were written by Sir Henry Walford Davies in 1558, and they speak to me now, so I’ll share them with you.
God be in my head, and in my understanding;
God be in mine eyes, and in my looking;
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking;
God be in my heart, and in my thinking;
God be at mine end, and at my departing.
May we take these words into at least one moment of the day we are in. Perhaps it is too much to ask us to notice God in every moment, but we can surely do this for one of the moments in our days. God is with us – whether we are singularly focused on finishing one task or flitting from thing to thing. May we take time to notice that God is present and still loves us dearly – and likely God is delighted when we pause to do the same.
