We may not trust ourselves but God can always be trusted to remain faithful to us

ARETHA Franklin, singer-songwriter and pianist is known throughout the world as the “Queen of Soul”. In a career spanning more than 50 years she produced a string of hits and had a host of best-selling albums. She regularly appears in those Top 10 lists of “Greatest Musical Artists of All Time” that magazines are so fond of.

The film Respect, currently on general release, tells the story of her rise to fame and the creativity and artistry she brought to the world of soul and gospel music. But the film also tells another story. We learn too of the men who controlled, manipulated and abused her throughout her life. We see her struggles with alcohol. We become aware of the trauma she experienced at 12, when she was raped by a visitor to her family home which left her pregnant. Yet this is not a tragic story, horrific though some of the details may be. For through it all she is conscious of the presence of God and discovers that when she is unable to manage her life, the God she trusts is more than able to carry her. She celebrated this truth in her gospel recording of 1972 which her management said would be hated by the public and yet became her best-selling album.

As I watched the film this week, I was reminded again that what matters in our relationship with God is not our faithfulness: that, too often, despite our good intentions and sincere attempts, often lies shattered in pieces around us. No, the significant thing is that God remains faithful. We may not trust ourselves but God is always to be trusted and no matter how far we feel we may have fallen he is more than able to rescue us. Old translations of the Bible speak of God being able to save “to the uttermost”. Or as Corrie ten Boom, arrested and imprisoned by the Nazis for hiding Jewish people during the Second World War, put it: “There is no pit so deep that his (God’s) love is not deeper still.”

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