God is with us

God is with us

By Tammy Townsend Denny, TI Executive Director

Many years ago, during a particularly difficult time in my life, a friend shared with me something that her Spanish grandmother used to tell her: God is even in the toilet.
Before you take offense, please let me explain:

My friend shared her grandmother’s words with me not to disrespect the sacred divinity of the Almighty, but rather to remind me that God is always with me, even in the bathroom. God is there in the most challenging, painful, horrible times and in the most average, every day, mundane moments. Divine Love never abandons us.
I was reminded of my friend’s words this week when the professor for one of my Master of Divinity courses opened class by reading the essay “God is on the Bathroom Floor.”

In this essay, the author, who goes by the moniker Nightbirde, writes about her cancer diagnosis. She shares:

“The bathroom floor became my place to hide, where I could scream and be ugly; where I could sob and spit and eventually doze off, happy to be asleep, even with my head on the toilet… 

Call me bitter if you want to—that’s fair. Count me among the angry, the cynical, the offended, the hardened. But count me also among the friends of God. For I have seen Him in rare form. I have felt His exhale, laid in His shadow, squinted to read the message He wrote for me in the grout: ‘I’m sad too.’”
She goes on to write,

“Even on days when I’m not so sick, sometimes I go lay on the mat in the afternoon light to listen for Him. I know it sounds crazy, and I can’t really explain it, but God is in there—even now. I have heard it said that some people can’t see God because they won’t look low enough, and it’s true. If you can’t see him, look lower. God is on the bathroom floor.”
I encourage you to take the time to read this powerful essay of lament (click here to read “God is on the Bathroom Floor”) and this stirring reminder that God is with us.

P.S. And here’s a song reminder that God is indeed with us.