Faithfulness

This is a song I grew familiar with and became comforting to me through growing up in a Mennonite church and family that sings four-part-harmony hymns. 

At this point not all the terminology used resonates or makes me feel comfortable but the general idea of the hymn makes sense to me and gives me feelings of peace and hope.

I don't like the idea of addressing God as Father; it is an image that has been used a lot throughout history, and is one of the main ways people talk about God in the Bible but it is just one of many images and it's just an image not a full and accurate description. 

It just causes people to project ideas of their own father, or an idealized version of their own father, or some ideal male authority figure in society onto the concept of a divine being which I think has just made us believe God carries the same hypocritical, emotionally underdeveloped, and violent traits that most humans with male bodies (or just humans in general) often display and propagates patriarchal ideology.

What I like about this hymn is its assurance that our needs are provided for and always will be provided for so we shouldn't let worry or anxiety about the future weigh us down and prevent us from being thankful for and enjoying life and the things we have in life.  

I don't interpret this to mean that we can just lay on our beds all day and expect food and shelter to be handed to us without doing anything, rather I believe the Earth has been made to provide for all our needs and we as humanity have been given the ability to do what it takes to satisfy our own needs and take care of the needs of those who are unable to do so themselves (or do not believe they are able to for whatever reason).

I also like that the lyrics of this hymn talk about God's faithfulness rather than assuming I/we/whoever's singing or listening has faith or belief in God. 

How can we have faith for something if we don't know what it is, if it created everything in the entire universe and we are just one minuscule part of it? God can know each of us but we can't know God.

Even though to believe that God has faithfulness, that God will provide for our needs, takes faith itself, it is a lot easier for me to believe that God knows us enough for our needs to always be provided rather than the Judeo-Christian belief that God conditionally provides for our needs based on us knowing God's laws for how to live and living the right way. 

The former belief requires only God to know us, the latter requires us to know God which I think is impossible and illogical based on definitions of God.

To sum it up: I don't know who or what God is but I know enough about the universe and the earth which the divine being we call "God" hypothetically created, to know that there will never a situation I'm in that it is not possible for my needs to be taken care of - whether it is by myself, other people, or the earth itself. 

We live in a world of abundance, there's no reason anyone should go long without their needs being taken care of so there's no reason to live without joy and gratitude for long:

• "Morning by morning new mercies I see"

• "Summer and winter and springtime and harvest join with all nature in manifold witness"

• "A peace that endureth"

• "Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow"

• "Blessings are mine with ten-thousand beside"