Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Nails on a Chalkboard

My most disliked phrase from those in ministry is some version of the words, "God showed up." Whether it is, "I need God to show up," or "God showed up huge." It is just grating. If you Googled the phrase, "I need God to show up," you get 98,500,000 results. When did we get the notion that God was absent, or somewhere else?

Psalm 139, especially verses 7 through 12, is a Psalm of God's inescapable presence:
7Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,"
12even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.

We can't find a place to go where God isn't already there. Waiting. He doesn't need to show up. His Godness is always present wherever we run to or run from. He is not waiting for us to show up. Wherever we are, He is there with us. Perhaps he is just waiting for us to show up with more of our being, expecting communion.

1 comment:

Hillary said...

Amen! So true! Similarly, I remember someone talking once about how we so often pray for God to be with us. Um, hello! He's ALWAYS with us! Sometimes I catch myself and change my prayer to "God, help me be aware of your presence today." Thanks for the reminder today!