The Good Father

In this age of fathers who walk away from their families, the idea of a good father is easily lost.  Many people have no experience with a good father.  Instead, they experienced emotional wreckage when their dad left.  It negatively impacted them, their mother, and their siblings.  For school-aged kids, it affects everything from their behavior at school to their grades and self-esteem.  The man who walked away from them held the title of father but didn't actually perform the role itself. 

When this idea is talked about in relation to God, you may have a hard time understanding.  At its worst, in your mind, God has the same attributes as the father who abandoned you.  He is only concerned for himself, doesn't care about anything you are going through, is unavailable when you need him the most, and provides nothing to actually help you in your daily life.  Survival each day is just you making it happen with this supposed father somewhere else.  He might check in occasionally on text or phone, but he's not there to actually love you and walk through life with you.

Our viewpoint on God is much, much too low.

Jesus had this to say about our good Father from Matthew 7:9-12.

9 “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? 10 Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! 11 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.

When I first became a parent, my view of the world completely changed.  Previously, it was just myself and Amanda.  She had a job, I was teaching, and we just did whatever we wanted in life.  We didn't make a lot of money but we had a house and generally got to make our own schedule outside of our workday. Even as a teacher I remember some of the mindsets I had that were not student-friendly.  I was pretty black and white because really I had no greater perspective than myself.  That all changed with the arrival of Samuel.

I knew things had changed with a wake up call quite early in the morning when he decided to come in to the world.  I woke up at about 2 am and Amanda was frantically getting herself ready in our bathroom.  I was confused and asked her what she was doing, and she told me that her water had broken and that we needed to head out now.  That is perhaps the quickest wake up I have ever experienced!  Our day was interrupted, and it would be the first of many, many life interruptions as a parent.  In an instant, and then over the next 17 years with my boys, my perspective has changed dramatically.

Samuel was a good baby but had colic, meaning he would scream at the top of his lungs for hours on end because he was uncomfortable.  I remember coming home from work exhausted many days to walk in the door to him screaming, with Amanda handing him off to me and leaving the room.  I generally spent the next two hours holding him and trying to help him calm down.  Whatever plans I had at the moment or for the evening were officially wiped out, and so was I!  And when we finally got him to bed in the early evening, he would wake up ever hour and a half to two hours because he was hungry or needed a diaper change.  I didn't like coffee before that moment, but I learned to love it in a short period of time.

You see, I learned quickly that Samuel had his own schedule and his own needs.  He was completely helpless without me and Amanda.  I could have been upset with him for being so selfish in that first year (sometimes I was), but it wouldn't have ultimately mattered.  He was a baby at the time and babies have specific needs that can't really be planned for or put off or ignored.  That's just the way babies are. And as a father I recognized this and did everything I could possibly do to attend to those needs.

Zachary later came along, and while he didn't decide to come into the world during the night, he did come into the world and got sick the first two weeks of his life.  We feared we would lose him and it shook me up for many months after we got through it.  

When we adopted three wonderful boys, we experienced an entirely new level of parenting, bringing kids who were not originally in our family and taking them on as an Edwards.  This came with more interruptions, more needs, additional heartache and heavier challenges.  We had even more late nights, more discipline, more coaching conversations, more hugs and pats on the back, and more hours of lost sleep.  Those things also are all a part of parenting and being a dad.  And through it all I learned to love them and work for the best good for them, and they blessed me in it all.

Over time as I reflected on my experiences as a father, and continued to go through more of them, I gained a little better understanding of who God is and what Jesus's words really meant when it came to myself and him.

You see, God is the Good Father.  He is available at all moments because he is everywhere.  He is aware of everything about us including what we have experienced, what we feel, and what we think.  We have never been anywhere in this world where he is absent.  He has walked through the painful moments with us because he was present.  And because of that, and because he made us, he knows what we need.

God knows that you need food and a place to live and clothing.  If you have those things, it is because he allowed them in your life.  That is why we should thank him everyday for those things.  In your mind you may believe you provided them.  After all, wasn't it your paycheck that purchased those things?  But remember, that job that provides you a paycheck is also from God.  And your skills and abilities that allow you to work are from God.  Were you able to go to college or a school to learn how to do these things?  That also is from God.  

Did you get out of bed breathing and with energy?  God allowed that too, both the sleep you got and the fact that you woke up ready. Whether you recognize it or not, you have many blessings in your life that were provided by him.  You see, every single day we have things we can be thankful for that are gifts directly from his hands!  

This Good Father goes so much further though.  Have you ever been angry with God?  Really angry with him?  Have you ever said or thought things about him that were angry and spiteful and cruel?  I have.  I said them because I was hurting and didn't understand the times I was in and his purpose behind them.  So I lashed out.  

Perhaps you have thought little of what Jesus did for you.  You have gone through each day as though you made it and you are in control and have security in Jesus, but then don't acknowledge him at all.  The day just kind of happened and you later threw up some insincere prayer of thanks that you've prayed a million times at dinner or bedtime, and you felt you had done your deed for the day.  But you didn't connect with God at all that day.  I have also done this.

I want you to notice that these things we do toward God are hurtful.  I'm certain he is sad that we treat him that way.  I'm certain he is sad because we continue in our sin and don't really "get" our relationship with him.  I'm certain he is dismayed when we scorn the gift that Jesus is in our lives and treat what he did as something that is small or insignificant.  And yet, this Good Father doesn't leave or abandon us.  Not once.  Not ever.

Surely you have been like me, running back to this Good Father when things are bad or difficult or when you just had nowhere else to run.  And you found that he was right there where you left him.  And he wasn't cold or distant.  He wrapped his arms around you and comforted you and walked through that situation with you.  He shed tears when you did and felt what you felt, because he loves you.

You see, when my own kids have done things like that to me, I felt a prodding from the Lord.  It was a gentle reminder that I can sometimes be that way to him, and yet he is committed to me.  He has reassured that he won't leave me no matter what.  Those situations are like him holding a mirror up to me so I can finally see the ugliness of how I have treated him.

You see, when Jesus referred to God the Father, he knew him as his Father.  Jesus himself experienced fellowship with God the Father like no one else ever has.  He knew firsthand that his Father never left or abandoned him.  He knew the goodness of the Father firsthand.

And it was Jesus who taught us how to be true children of this Good Father, because children do what their Father does.  

Matthew 5:43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’[q] and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies![r] Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends,[s] how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

This may look like a set of instructions from Jesus to us, and it is.  But look deeper.  He's describing attributes of this Good Father that his children must mimic.  They include:

• loving enemies of ours.  He did that when he loved you before you loved him.
• praying for those who persecute you.  Jesus did this for his persecutors, and the Holy Spirit does that for you all the time.
• love those who do not love us.  He does that with all the people of the world, even if they don't know him yet.

God does all of those things for you, even when you mess up and even when you turn away from him.  Because he is a Good Father, his love for you never had a beginning and it never will have an end.  For the dad's out there who have held your crying newborn for the first time, you know what I mean.

I cannot take away the hurt and disarray that your earthly father might have caused you.  What's done is done.  What I can do, though, is point you to someone who isn't anything like that.  He's waiting for you with open arms, today, right now, to take you back and take you in and let you feel his love.  

He's different.  

He's good.  

He's better than any father you have ever seen.  And he is your Father, if you will have him.  

From the beginning, God always provided the sacrifice!

It began at the beginning of all things, when the first man and the first woman had made a bad decision and found themselves separated from God.  The two of them had done something that they had expressly been forbidden from doing and were already experiencing the consequences of it.  They experienced shame at their nakedness and separation from the one who had created them and nurtured them and built a relationship with them, and they hid themselves.  And the end result was that they were given a gift.

Abraham experienced the very same thing many years later.  He had a son that had been promised to him for many, many years.  A son he had waited for and longed for.  A son he had tried to bring to the world on his own and in his own timing.  And when that very son was of age, Abraham was commanded to take him up on a mountain to sacrifice him to God.  It wasn't until Abraham and his son reached the top of the mountain, the altar and the wood were set up, his son was tied up, and Abraham was ready to bring the knife down that a gift was provided.

Jacob's sons had a similar experience many years later.  They were jealous of their teenage brother who seemed to get all of dad's attention and they plotted to kill him.  At the last minute they were convinced to try another tactic, so they sold their brother into slavery in Egypt and counted him as dead.  And 13 years later, a gift was given to them.

You have probably received gifts in your life that you felt you did not deserve.  They seemed extravagant or expensive or over the top, but someone gave them to you anyway.  I remember back when we first had Samuel, my grandfather gave me the gift of one of his cars.  But this was no ordinary car.  For years his hobby had been to restore old cars, and he gifted me with a 1950 Ford coupe that he had fixed up many years ago.  It was black and shiny and distinctive and ultimately was a great car.  I always felt weird about having it because it was so over the top for a teacher who was the sole provider for the family.  I took good care of the car for sure, but I always had this nagging feeling that I didn't deserve it.  And yet with that feeling I had completely forgotten what a gift really is.

Gifts are given because the giver wants to give them.  There's really no other reason you receive a gift from someone.  Maybe you have experienced it personally.  Have you ever surprised a close friend or loved one with a gift that you knew they really, really wanted?  It is unlikely you were trying to get anything from that person.  Instead, you were just excited to give the gift and excited to see them receive it.

When you sin, no matter how "great" or "small" it is, you are separated from God.  We tend to think of sins and to rank them as though a lie only separates you from God a little but murder puts you many miles away from him.  It just doesn't work that way.  Sin is sin.  It is something God will not tolerate and will not be around.  It is literally disgusting to him, and the unfortunate reality is that you and I participate in it every single day of our lives.  Knowing this is true, what hope is there for us?  Really?

For many generations, people have tried to do things on their own to get back in good standing with God.  Current methods might be to do something kind for others, or say nice things about God, or pray a prayer with certain words or cadence in the hope that it will please him.  We may give more to a church or a nonprofit organization or find a way to "serve" others.  And yet none of those things put us in better standing with him.  In fact, the prophet Isaiah stated that "our righteous deeds are like filthy rags."  That means when you do kind things and pray certain ways and give money to the poor, all you are doing is piling your heap of dirty, disgusting rags higher and higher and higher.  It could get to the size of a mountain and yet it still is what it is:  a pile of rags.

That gets us back to the gift.  We tend to look at Jesus as an example of God's mercy and grace to us, and of course that is true.  The trouble is that we act like that was the first time God showed grace to mankind, and that simply is not the case!  God's grace began when the first sin happened.

Let's look back at the first example with Adam and Eve.  Here are two people who had just committed the very first sin in human history.  The first.  The consequences of this sin were immediately felt by them and ultimately caused the entire world to be corrupted and the race of man to be forever polluted by sin.  We focus on the fact that God told them they had to leave the Garden of Eden and forever barred them from it, but we still miss the gift that is hidden in plain sight.  What was it?

Genesis 3:20 Then the man—Adam—named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live.[d] 21 And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.

Adam and Eve had sinned and separated themselves from God in doing this.  They were ashamed because they realized they were naked, and they hid from God.  And so God, before sending them out, gave them clothing to cover that shame, made of animal skin.  For an animal skin to be made into clothing, an animal has to die.  A sacrifice was made to cover their sin and shame, and it was performed by God.

Abraham, though he was considered to be a "friend of God," still had made many mistakes in his life.  He was unfaithful to God and to his wife.  He had not been patient to wait on God to provide.  And so he was told to take his son to the mountain and sacrifice him as an offering to pay for it.  And right at the last moment, a gift was given.

Genesis 22:13 Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”).

God provided the sacrifice that was needed.  Another being died to cover up Abraham, and his son's, sinful actions.  And God provided it, leading Abraham to name that place a special name because he realized God provided the sacrifice.

And in the final example, we see the exact same thing.  Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt.  They all thought he just disappeared and that they would never see him again.  And yet God knew that a terrible famine was coming.  Joseph in a way lost his life so that many, many people could be saved during that terrible time.  And God did what he does in bringing Joseph back to life.  He makes things new and he fixes things that are broken.  No, Joseph didn't physically die, but his life was essentially over when he went away on that Midian caravan into Egypt.  He had no hope and no future, and yet God resurrected it by making him prime minister of Egypt.  God provided the sacrifice and the resurrection.

God always provides the sacrifice and resurrection.  You can't do either of those things.

When you search for this pattern in God's word, you will find it everywhere.  God always provides the sacrifice that is needed to cover our sin and shame.  We think we are doing it, but all we are doing is participating in something he already had going on.  Jesus was the final and ultimate example, but all through the Old Testament the same thing was already happening.

What does this say about God?  He gives you and me grace that is not deserved and that we didn't earn.  It does not matter what you have done in your past.  God's grace is big enough to cover it if you will just submit your life to him and begin walking down that narrow, dusty, difficult path.  Adam and Eve had no hope because their sin, even in eating a simple fruit, was too big.  Same thing for Abraham.  Same thing for Jacob's family.  Not a shred of hope.  But the gift was given anyway and it covered it all.  

I don't know what you recently have been through.  I'm not sure what sin you have committed that you are ashamed of and has made you realize how separated you are from God.  I'm here today to tell you that it doesn't matter what you did.  God offers you a gift that covers it all.  You didn't earn it and never could.  It's yours for the taking though.  All you have to do is turn away from that sin, determined to walk in a new direction, and believe in Jesus.

I don't mean to communicate that God just winks at your sin and looks the other way.  He definitely does not do that.  Your sin and my sin are always something that he can't look upon and will not tolerate.  There are consequences for our sin that he will allow in our lives as a teacher and a disciplinarian.  What I am saying is that there is a remedy that he has already provided.  

You and I simply need to go to him for it and quit trying to do something about it on our own.  You'll never sacrifice enough or do enough good deeds to cover your sins.  If you could do that, there would have been no need for Jesus.

For you, the sacrifice has already been provided.  So accept the gift from a Good Father who delights to give it to you and is excited to give you a new birth and a new life.  Your old ways can truly be gone.

What will happen when you meet him

There's an old joke that says that you and I only "have" to do two things in this life:  die and pay taxes.  I think that applies no matter what country you live in currently.  Current studies bear out this truth that 100% of humanity eventually dies.  We don't know when or where or how it will happen, but it will happen.  Yes, even to you.  That raises an interesting question:  what happens afterward?

I remember several times in my life where I met someone who was either famous or had some position way higher than myself.  Once I met my favorite musician, Josh Garrels, at his concert.  We had this time where we could chat with him and ask him questions, and I couldn't think of anything to ask or say!  Here's a guy whose music has had a profound impact on my life, and I just didn't know what to say!  How silly.  He's just a man just like me.  When I was a kid our superintendent came to my school for the Manners Banquet which was supposed to teach us etiquette at a fine dining restaurant.  He sat at my table, and to this day I remember being extremely nervous.  I don't think I said a word the whole time, and yet he was a really nice guy!

Is it that way when we finally meet God face to face?  Do we get a dry mouth or slow of speech or do we keep from making eye contact?  What is it like?

The Bible tells us that every person will meet God after death, and it will be a face to face meeting.  It doesn't matter whether we believed in him or not on this earth;  we will all have this meeting.  What happens at such a meeting, I wonder?  The Bible gives us some clues as to what that is like.

The prophet Isaiah in chapter 6 of his book had a vision of what it feels like in the very room where God the Father is on the throne.

6 It was in the year King Uzziah died[a] that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. 2 Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 They were calling out to each other,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!
    The whole earth is filled with his glory!”
4 Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke.
5 Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”

Isaiah saw some things that shook him to the core.  This being he saw was not on an ordinary throne.  The train of his robe wasn't just a few feet long.  The beings attending to the one on the throne were unlike anything Isaiah had ever seen in this life.  It was smoky and it likely was extremely bright.  So Isaiah did what you and I would do, right?  He stared at it all and was amazed.  Not quite.

Isaiah's reaction to seeing God can only be described as awestruck.  This was unlike anything he could even compare to.  There were creatures he had never seen on Earth.  There was very loud noise and singing.  There was one on the throne who was so very different that Isaiah thought he was about to die.  In that moment, Isaiah finally realized how separated he was from God due to his sin, and this man was a prophet who spoke for God during a difficult time in Israel's history!  He wasn't just a random guy from the street.

Still other accounts of men in the Bible who met God include Saul in the new testament, who heard the voice of Jesus and saw a brilliant light and could do nothing but ask what he wanted him to do.  This from a man who didn't follow Jesus and did everything he could do previously to destroy the church, jail its members, and kill some of them.  Elijah when he met God in the wilderness at the mouth of a cave knew when God arrived, and something made him cover his face.  There is something so different about him that we just can't act normal.

It has been said that when Joseph Stalin was laying on his deathbed, moments before death he raised one arm and made it into a fist, perhaps as a last act of defiance.  I don't know if this is true, but I think some of us go through life like that.  Stalin was a godless man who murdered millions of his own countrymen and was ruthless beyond measure.  He had no time for God during his life because he probably felt he didn't "need" God.  

You probably are not a Joseph Stalin type, but do you behave in a similar manner?  Do you go through your life as though you don't need God?  You have plenty of money in the bank, a good place to live, and can buy your way into our out of anything.  Why would you need God?  Perhaps you come to church sometimes but that's the only evidence in this life that you are at all interested in Christ.  And yet someday you, too, will meet God.

I think sometimes we have this assumption that when we die we will just swagger into Heaven into the throne room of God and do a fist bump with him.  "Hey, God, how's it going up here?  Great to see you!  What is there to eat here?  What can I do now?  I don't want to be bored, you know!"  It just won't be like that at all.

When you die, whether you acknowledge the existence of God in your life or not, you will be in his presence, even if just for a few moments.  You will see what Isaiah and Daniel and John the prophet saw, and I suspect you will only have one reaction.  You'll fall on your face.  You'll look away.  If you speak it will be about how bad you have been and about how you got it all wrong.  It is likely your initial reaction will be sheer terror.  What you will see is absolutely nothing like anything you have seen before.  If someone afterward were to ask you to write down what you had seen, I don't think you could adequately describe it.  It's easy to describe things that are familiar, but this won't be familiar at all.

You'll hear loud noises and you'll see light that is brighter than staring into the sun.  There will be a lot going on around you.  How could you possibly stand up at such a sight?  How could you possibly say anything meaningful?  How could you possibly think you deserve to be in that place at all?  And more importantly, how could you possibly at that moment see anything "good" you did in your life as actually being good.  And if you never believed in God, do you think in a moment like that you'll be able to look God in the eyes and say "you don't exist.  This is just my imagination!"  No way.

No one who met God in the Bible was able to do anything like that, and we are talking about some really great, godly men!  We are talking about Moses and Elijah and Paul and John and Abraham and Daniel and Isaiah and Peter and hundreds of unnamed people who saw the Lord ascend to heaven in Acts.  If these people, even though they did so much good in the name of the Lord or for his people, couldn't stand or look at God, how will you somehow be able to do that?

This is deep, earth shattering stuff we are talking about here, but I think it has a daily application for you and I.  Knowing that this day is coming for each of us, shouldn't this make us behave differently?  I don't mean that we are running scared from God or trying to hide from him.  Instead, I think this should affect how I pray to him.  Perhaps I need to spend some time on my face before the Lord today.  Maybe you do as well.  Maybe you don't say the same kind of flippant prayers to him, knowing that he is so far above and separated from me that I just can't, and won't conceive of it.  The whole "God, please give me" prayers seem drained of all importance when you realize this.  They just won't do when you are speaking with one who is so far different and above us.  

What I am describing is reverence for God.  Reverence is a deep respect for another person.  Who in this life do you revere?  I have a few people that are on a pedestal I have made for them.  How high is God's pedestal for you?  Maybe it should be a lot higher than it is because he's just unlike anyone else you've ever met.

Perhaps this kind of knowledge of God will make you speak about him differently.  You'll be reluctant to casually say "oh God" or some other version of taking his name in vain.  You might even tell others about him since, for some odd reason, this infinite being knows your name, loves you, and wants an intimate relationship with you.  Maybe just maybe.

No matter what, you should understand this:  when you meet him face to face, it will be unlike any encounter you have ever had before.  You'll be shaken to the core and probably speechless.  Knowing that day is coming, what will you do about it?  Will you bow in worship now, or will you wait until that day and bow then.  We are not meant to bow our knees for the first time on that day, because it is too late then.  

What will you do?

Going somewhere? He is already there

The first time I took a trip to India, I was a bit nervous.  When you look on a map you notice that India is on the other side of the world from where I live.  It is a LONG way from home.  The culture is as different from American culture as you can imagine.  The people of India speak approximately 1,000 distinct languages, including English.  The local customs are nothing like American customs, the laws are completely different, and there are many things that a visitor would not know about India that can get them in real trouble over there.

There were a couple of thoughts that gave me comfort as I headed there on the airplane from Seattle.  The first was that I was flying on a Boeing 777 aircraft that was made right there in Everett where I lived at the time.  Even on the other side of the world there were many of those aircraft in service and every one of them had been made in my homeland.  The second thought that comforted me was that God was already waiting for me to arrive in India.

God is literally everywhere.  You have never been in any one place where he wasn't present.  Walking down a dark and intimidating alley?  He was there.  In your workplace on that day you won't ever forget?  He was there.  In your car on the way to work?  He was there too.  

As we talked about in THE LAST POST, he was there when you went from one cell to two and continued multiplying in your mother's womb.  He was there when you were born.  He has witnessed every birthday you have ever had.  He has been to every store that you shopped in, every wedding you have attended, and every funeral too.  He was available in every building you have ever worked in, in every date you have been on, and has been there every moment while you were asleep.

Have you traveled to Europe or China or Australia or Mexico?  He was there in those places too, even before you arrived.  He was on the airplane with you as well.

He has been present with you in the best moments of your life, and he has witnessed your lowest moments.  He has seen every tear you have ever shed and he knows what those tears were about.  Even in your lowest moments in life, he was there in that place.

Psalm 139 summarizes this thinking and brings it home for us:

I can never escape from your Spirit!

    I can never get away from your presence!

8 If I go up to heaven, you are there;

    if I go down to the grave,[a] you are there.

9 If I ride the wings of the morning,

    if I dwell by the farthest oceans,

10 even there your hand will guide me,

    and your strength will support me.

11 I could ask the darkness to hide me

    and the light around me to become night—

12     but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.

To you the night shines as bright as day.

    Darkness and light are the same to you.

Even if you try to get away from the Lord, desperate that he would leave you alone and not see you, you will never be successful during this life!  There is nowhere you could go to where he is not.  You could dive to the deepest ocean depths and he would be there.  You could go to Mars or the farthest reaches of the galaxy and he would be there.  God is literally everywhere and accessible in each of those places.

To say that God is everywhere does not immediately mean that we have recognized or enjoyed his presence in those places.  You may have gone about your business one day and not thought of God at all.  You think you are shopping for groceries or working and that God is somewhere else.  And yet he was there the whole time, at work.  Even when you go to church this is possible.  There are likely times that you have been to church multiple times but been so distracted by other things that you didn't see him even in that place.  And yet Jesus promised us that "when two or more are gathered in my name, there I am with you."  So Jesus was present and working, but you and I didn't feel him or recognize him.  

You had the opportunity to enjoy his presence in those places and see his activity but you just did not.  And yet he was still in that place.  It seems that his presence has nothing to do with how you feel at the time or whether you recognize him or not.  He's there anyway.

What daily implications does this have for us?  If God is literally everywhere I happen to go to, this tells me that I can look for his activity around me and join it, as Henry Blackaby boldly stated in "Experiencing God,"  it means that my daily activity could have a lot more significance than I think it does.  It means that I can enjoy God's presence literally anywhere I happen to be.  I can pray, I can ask him to show me where he's working, and I can ask him for the boldness to join him.  I can sit silently and listen for his gentle whispers and his guidance in my life.  No matter how busy I am, or how bad or good my day turns out to be, I can go to the one who is right there with his arms open, just waiting for me to go to him.

This also means that I am never truly alone.  In these days of lockdowns and pandemics, loneliness is a serious thing.  It has caused many to take their own lives or fall into the hole of depression.  Yet the Lord is right there in those moments too.  He has promised if we know him that he will never leave us nor abandon us.  We are never in a place where our prayers simply go nowhere.  We are never in a spot where he cannot be.  We are never in a moment where he has been excluded and can't see what is happening.

In my own hardest and darkest moments, and even in the good ones, I have found that silence before the Lord, sometimes while on my face, is best.  He knows the hurt I have felt and the emotional pain I am experiencing.  At times, silence before him, knowing he knows these things, is incredibly important.  There have been moments like that for me when I just didn't know what to say or ask for, and that was perfectly fine.  It wasn't necessary for me to say anything because God already knew, and my heart needed the healing that only he could provide.  That means that he knows the burdens you carry as well.

If you are in such a spot today, please remember several things.  First, he is not absent or disengaged.  Second, remember that he sees your hurt, knows what it is about, and knows that the healing for it can only come from him.  So go to him, even in what I would call "silent prayer," where you just sit in his presence and think of him and say nothing.  

Your hurt isn't caused by a God who is detached.  Instead it's what happens when you live in a broken world.  Go to him, run to him, and sit with him as long as it takes.  Nothing else you have on today's agenda matters as much as that.  My prayer is that you will, even if it is for the first time, recognize this God who is everywhere and accessible to you in every moment in every place during every day.  There truly is no one like him!