Boney James is Like God ... Kinda

 

Look! He comes with the clouds of heaven.
    And everyone will see him—
    even those who pierced him.
And all the nations of the world
    will mourn for him.
Yes! Amen!

“I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.”  Revelations 1:7-8

I am a jazz music fan.  I like classical jazz, but I absolutely love modern jazz.  As such, I make a lot of CDs to listen on long drives, and armed with it, I could literally drive for days (Driving from coast to coast is a bucket list item).  One of my favorite artists that I listen to is a guy named Boney James (Yes, that is his name).  I love when his songs come blaring from the sound system.  They have this distinct sound, and the melodies always soothe me.  They give me a pep in my step, and there is a smile that comes over my face showing the joy in my listening to it.  It does not matter how good the song is before or after him or whether his song is at the beginning or end.  His songs stand against all others.  It made a silly thought come into mind.  Could Boney James be God?  Of course not!  But his music does have some attributes of God that remind me of Him.  That is not a bad thing.

 It is important to remember how great God is.  One of my favorite words when I think of God is the word ‘Dominion.’  Dominion is defined as the power or right of governing and controlling; sovereign authority. rule; control; domination. We are given dominion over all of God’s creation as Genesis 1:28 (NKJV) says, “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.””  One of the good questions I had in my head is why doesn’t the Bible say God has dominion over us?  The answer is that there is a subtle but important difference between dominion and control.  We have dominion over all animals, but try that line with a hungry cheetah chasing after you.  Doesn’t work so well, huh?  However, God has control over everything.  He makes a rule and breaks it just because He is God.  He will make ways when we cannot, and in my scenario, He will put a barrier or diversion to save you in a situation where the cheetah is chasing you.  God is not what we always want Him to be, but He is always what we need.  There can be nothing greater than that.

 We should learn to embrace the control God has over us.  A line I often reference to is from the movie 'Rudy' where a priest is questioned on his certainty about God, he answered that there is a God, and "I am not Him."  A great sermon at my church spoke of how Jesus can be unfair as He healed a man who could not walk on the Sabbath. But that was to show His authority as the Son of God and not focus on the fact maybe others needed healing that day.  Sometimes our pain is there for us to learn something like Paul dealing with his imperfection (Romans 7:14-25) or Jacob’s hip being out of socket (Genesis 32:22-32).  But no matter what we are dealing with, we know that if we place our trust in God knowing He is in control, everything will turn out alright.  Like a Boney James song, it does not matter whether God comes at the beginning, the middle, or the end.  He will always be right on time.  What things are you pressing for control over that God has?  Do you acknowledge God in everything that you do?  My prayer is that we find the greatness of God in all things … even Boney James.  Amen.