How my name is Father?

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is The Center Presents.

There is this incredible song called How Deep the Father's Love.

It is one of those songs that I could probably listen to or sing poorly, but listen to and sing along

with any time of the year.

But there's a line in that song that is problematic.

The line is, the Father turns his face away. As Jesus is on the cross, and he's offering himself up

in obedience, humility, and love to the father, he's surrendering everything to the father.

That dark moment, the father turned his face away. I think that's probably because there's

the line that Jesus prays from the cross.

One of the last seven words from Jesus from the cross, right, the last seven phrases from the cross

are the words, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Or my God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

Now, I know that those words resonate with so many people.

Because we have this common experience, right, the common experience of feeling abandoned by God.

And I just want to talk about that a little bit because what is it, what's happening when we feel

abandoned by God? Now, there's probably a lot of things. There's things like desolation and prayer.

There's things like difficulty in prayer. There's dryness in prayer. There are times where it's just like,

no, I just really am experiencing a real depression or real loneliness in life.

There can be times where every single one of us experiences that feeling.

But the question we have to ask is, in those moments, just like Jesus on the cross, is it true?

Is it true that in those moments God has abandoned us?

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