When I first heard “God Must Be Busy” by Brooks and Dunn I changed the channel. I take my faith pretty seriously and the fact that God answers prayer is a cornerstone of that belief. The song implies that God’s seeming lack of answer to a specific prayer is due to the fact that He is otherwise engaged. The artists sing:
And I know in the big picture
I’m just a speck of sand
and God’s got better things to do
than look out for one man.
I know he’s heard my prayers
cause he hears everything,
he just ain’t answered back
or he’d bring you back to me.
God must be busy.
Because I considered it an affront that the song implied that God was ignoring the prayer because He was paying attention to something else, I turned the dial and listened to another, hopefully more uplifting country tune (and for those of you who haven’t discovered the beauty of country music, that is not an oxymoron.) I don’t like the implication that God ignores any prayer – let alone the prayer of a heart that is broken.
The second time I heard the song though, I realized that the artists were, quite unintentionally, kind of right. The song implied that God was busy and that therefore He hadn’t responded. While I don’t think God’s busyness prevents His response, God is busy.When you think about how big this world is, and how much time God spends showering us each with His grace, you have to believe that He has the world’s best Palm Pilot. Otherwise, there would be no time to get all of those blessings in. Whether He’s preventing harm or delivering good, He is busy demonstrating His love – often to people who will never reciprocate. Even holding back the gates of Hell is a demonstration of His magnanimousness. And holding back the gates of Hell must be a pretty consuming task. We think that God is too busy for us, but the truth is, He’s busy with us – constantly working for our good. After all, “God works all things for the good of those who love Him” (Ro. 8:28) and that’s got to take some time and resources.
When Daniel prayed and didn’t receive an answer, it wasn’t because God hadn’t responded. He had sent His angel and the angel had to battle to get there (See Daniel 10.) If we call on God and think we’ve got a busy signal, the chance is its because He’s calling His angels on our behalf.