So Far, so God
I love the hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” It was my mother’s favorite hymn and that’s part of the reason I love it too. However, there was one line I did not understand. It went like this, “Here I raise mine Ebenezer. Hither by Thy help I’ve come.”
What is an Ebenezer, I wondered. I thought I would go through life never knowing.
One day, a few weeks ago, I was reading in 1 Samuel, chapter 7. The prophet, Samuel, was asked to pray for the people of Israel to be successful in battle against the Philistines. After Samuel’s prayer, the Philistines attacked, and the Lord “thundered with a mighty voice,” throwing the Philistines into confusion. They were routed before Israel.
Samuel, to commemorate the victory, took a stone and set it up, naming it Ebenezer. Then he said, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
Eureka! That’s what the line in the hymn means. So far, so God. God had helped the Israelites to be victorious up to that point.
As I reflected on all of this, I thought I need to raise an Ebenezer myself. God has gotten me through a lot of battles, some earthly and some spiritual. How would I raise an Ebenezer in 21st Century America? For me, writing about it seems a good way. Others would have their own ways.
As I write, we are in the middle of a pandemic - a battle against viruses. It helps me to remember how many times God has delivered me in the past. Here are three:
About twenty years ago, I was driving on I 85 on a hot summer day after a big lunch. I felt myself getting drowsy, but turned up the radio and air conditioning and kept going. All of a sudden I felt a jolt and bumps. I woke up in the median, realizing I had gone to sleep at the wheel. Before I knew it the car had bounced back on the interstate and started spinning around. I cried, “Jesus, save me.” I steered away from the path toward the trees on the other side of the interstate and finally got the car under control and stopped - in the middle of the interstate and facing the ongoing traffic. Except that the ongoing traffic was stopped watching the show. Jesus had answered my prayer.
About five years ago I went with a medical mission team to Liberia in the middle of the Ebola crisis. We knew we had to be very careful and we met as a team every morning to pray Psalm 91 over us and the people we were serving. Several times a day I prayed that Psalm as I carried samples of bodily fluids from the physician who extracted them to the lab. God got us back to the US Ebola free.
Although the third example is not an example relating to physical safety, it is one relating to financial safety. About thirty some odd years ago, I started a new law firm. I was sitting in my office without anything to do. I needed clients! I started talking to God. “God, if you want me to fail, I’ll fail. Just do whatever you want.” As soon as I finished praying I decided (since I had nothing to do) I might as well go to the nearby mall and walk around. I wandered into a bookstore and they had a just released book prominently displayed on the first counter I saw. They had maybe fifty of these books on that counter standing up, lying down, stacked. The title: God Wants You to Succeed by Pat Boone. You can’t imagine how fast I grabbed that book and raced to the checkout line to pay for it. That endorsement from God kept me going and allowed us to profit from the firm for many years.
These are just a few of the many times and ways God has met me at crucial points in my life and saved me physically and emotionally. So, in the middle of this pandemic, I raise my Ebenezer. So far, so God.