In Other Words . . . So What if I Fall?The Heart of Diety Never Takes His Eyes Off of Me . . .

“What if I stumble, what if I fall?

What if I lose my step and I make fools of us all?
Will the love continue when my walk
becomes a crawl?
What if I stumble, and what if I fall?”

Chorus from the song, "What if I stumble?"
Artist: DC Talk / Album: Intermission

It's a phenomenon I've noticed often in Contemporary Christian Music:
So much use of the word "I."

Why so much focus on ME? So what if I fall? It's a given that I will. And yes, His Great Love will go on even when my walk becomes a crawl.

See, there is not a soul since the beginning of the world that has not stumbled. We all fall and make fools of all mankind. It's our nature. Yet God sees each and every one. Every time. Everywhere. He's the Creator!

It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord our God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.
- Deuteronomy 11:12

What land? What year? It was around the year 1400 B.C. It was the Land of Milk and Honey: The Promised Land. And in the context of this passage in Deuteronomy, the Israelites are being equipped to set out and possess the land. They did not yet physically control the land – their right to the territory hadn’t yet materialized. Yet they already seemed to have power over this land through eyes of faith.

I'm fairly certain they were not listening to DC Talk on thier IPods.
They were not worried about "falling."

And guess what? This same beautiful illustration is -- should be -- ours in 2009: God’s caring and attentive eyes are always looking upon us. And we - like the Israelites - can put our concerns and uneasiness into God’s hand of infinite grace and possess strength to face the yet-unseen future.

“The eyes of the Lord…” What precisely does that mean? Surely it is more than just Omniscience. I don't know for certain. But let’s just envision the delight and enchantment in the eyes of a loving and devoted parent as they watch their young child achieve something for the very first time. Let's say: walking! (Lots of stumbling and falling here.) Do you see in your mind's eye the deep love of God’s eyes as He watches His creation stumble and fall . . . and learn?

This looking-after is not delegated to some other heavenly creature. The Bible does not tell us that the eyes of the angels are watching over us. God Himself watches us! The heart of Deity looks after us! And he never stops watching after us. This special watch-care is unbroken. It’s continuous. This unwearied power of God toward His people has been uninterrupted since the creation of the world! No human effort, no lyricist, no gifted writer, no dramatist could ever sufficiently make plain or explain God’s watch-care over His own.

He watches each of us with personal interest and He absolutely sees us stumble and fall-- knowing full well that the ensuing bruises only teach us better how to walk when we get up and continue on . . . .

It’s time we switched to the flip side of all the songs and lyrics that focus on "I." We need to take an honest look at our eyes.

If God is ceaselessly and unwarily watching us, should not our eyes be upon Him? Constantly?!

Sad thing is I’m afraid we don’t even come close. We get caught up in our days -- setting our sights on the temporal and the frivolous – and we don’t look for Him or see Him at all. And that's when we ask,

"What if I stumble, what if I fall?"

~ Esthermay V. Bentley-Goossen
© 2009 The Heart of a Pastor's Wife

This installment of InOtherWords is hosted by Miriam on her blog, Miriam Pauline's Monolouge.