How Bout Dat?
“Cast all your anxiety on God because He cares for you.” — 1 Peter 5:7
I have been journaling consistently for the past ten years—a written record that now comprises 70 journals—all lined up chronologically on my bookshelf. Early on, I liked to picture my children or grandchildren reading them sometime in the future. But as time has passed, I have reached a place where it no longer matters if anyone else ever reads them. Because I read them. And I have found that both the writing and the reading helps me.
When I first began to journal, I tried to record the ‘important’ things that happened. I wrote about what was happening at work and church. I copied down quotes that caught my attention in books and movies, sermons and speeches. And I wrote out my prayers.
Recently, I began a re-read of the entire set of journals. It is proving to be difficult both because of the amount of time it is taking and because of the pain involved in reliving some of the memories. But, as I look back from where I am now, two things stand out to me. I get easily confused about the important things in life. It turns out that the ‘small’ things are the important ones, and that remembering and reliving them brings sweetness and joy.
Like these stories that I recently came across about our younger son, Eli.
There was the day not long after he was potty-trained that I found him in the bathroom with a huge clump of toilet paper—‘cleaning’ up. Before I knew it, Eli had both of his hands in the toilet bowl, so that he could clean the inside as well as the outside. Then it dawned on him that maybe he did not, in fact, want to have the contents of an unflushed toilet all over his hands. And I couldn’t get to him fast enough to prevent him from flinging the water on his hands all over himself and everything else in the bathroom. Probably not my favorite experience at the time, but it sure made for a funny memory to share with the now middle-school-aged Eli.
And then there was the “How bout dat?” phase—where he would suddenly point out something that interested him, followed by his three favorite words, “How bout dat.” The phrase could be meant as a command, a question, or an exclamation. It was up to us to decipher Eli’s inflection in order to determine the appropriate response.
And there was the journal entry written in the middle of the night, when I was having trouble sleeping. Eli ended up having the same problem that night and joined me on the couch. He immediately fell asleep, curled up next to me, while I wrote about how nice it was to have him there. How it made me feel loved that he wanted to be near me.
And somehow, somewhere, these small and insignificant stories turned into important connections with God.
I realized that it pleases God when we choose to spend time with Him, nestling up next to Him, because we want to be close by His side. And that God enjoys our ‘How bout dat’ prayers, when we get excited about something that He made or how it works. Plus, unlike us, He has the ability to perfectly decipher the meaning of our words, even when we are unsure of it ourselves. And God keeps loving us, even if we sometimes find ourselves flinging dirty toilet water all over everyone and everything around us.
It’s astounding in every way. That the God of the universe draws near to us. That He never tires of listening to our prayers. And that He loves us even in our not-so-good-moments.
