Surpised by the presence of God - More Theology with Tom Waits

A couple of weeks ago I spoke at the Truth Voice 2010 conference in Ohio at the invitation of my good friend Virgil V.  The title of my presentation was Tom Waits: Singing for the Least of These.  I thought it went over fairly well - no one threw anything at me, no one got up from their seats and ran for the door even though I subjected them to my own singing of a couple of Tom's songs. 

Later Virgil told me that one attendee had complained to him about my talk on the ground that he he didn't believe Waits to be a Christian, so what relevance did all of that have to us anyway?  Either he missed the point or I wasn't as clear as I though I had been - or both.  Oh well.

In recent years I have begun to be surprised by the presence of God in unlikely places.  (Hence the title on my blog: Looking for God Everywhere...)  And I have been enjoying the surprise.  He's there, all around, waving at us, grinning and smirking at his own cleverness.  "Ha!" he laughs. "You found me." 

And despite my complainer's complaints (who, by the way, never complained to me directly....) I'm not the only one who has been amused by the surprising presence of God in the music and lyrics of Tom Waits.   Benjamin Myers - an Australian scholar teaching systematic theology - wrote a blog not quite 3 years ago on the same theme:  Tom Waits: theologian of the dysangelion .

I hadn't read his blog before putting my presentation together - but it is interesting to see where we overlapped.  I am encouraged.  At least I know that I'm not out in left field by myself.