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!
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