Where is God? Part 2

Lots of folk ask this question.  There are a good number who believe God is no where - just doesn't exist.  If they ever feel anything like a connection with the divine they call it something else.  Although I have a very limited experience of atheists, I'd expect they do not conceive of a life force larger than the individual.

So, I'm not talking about those folks...the ones with a consistent, thought out approach to the truth of God.  They do not change their tune when they get cancer, or their child crashes the car in the early hours of the morning or when they are mugged at gunpoint.  None of this has anything to do with God and they would not take their complaints to any God nor expect some kind of explanation.  This is not to say that these folks have no interest in justice or mercy because that's just not true.

I'm talking about the folks who are closet 'experts' on God.  They are in the closet because you'd never guess they had any serious thoughts about God until one of the above disasters enters their life. They have pretended that your faith or faithfulness are better left undiscussed.  They have not sought enlightenment from any of the world's religious teachings about God.  They have not participated in a faith community who gains its identity from God.  They have no relationship with any God beyond the requisite "you are in my thoughts and prayers" (even when they don't pray) or the famous icey road prayer, "O God deliver me!"

Then comes disaster and they become experts.  God should have....where was God when.....what good is God if this happens....   On and on it goes, often concluding with "I can never believe in a God who allows ....to happen."

So, it's just at these moments, when 'the cross' is so unavoidable, when the darkness of this world threatens to overwhelm, that we who are children of this God are critical.  We are God's presence in the midst of their loss.  We carry the light of God's tomorrow into their prison cell of fear and sorrow.  What we say and do at these moments reflects powerfully on the God in whom we believe.

So, think twice, pray three times and most of the time say nothing.  Don't make promises you cannot fulfill.  Don't claim to know what God is thinking, or doing.  In word and deed, let them know that Jesus wept at Lazarus' tomb and God weeps with them.  No self-righteousness allowed.  No trying to soften the sting of death.  Just the truth of God's deep love for them especially in this time of loss.

Because, you see, that is when your relationship with God began: when the darkness threatened to devour you and the love of God gave you something to which to cling.  Bring that God into their presence and then depend on the Holy Spirit to lead you and them into new life.  Be a little Christ to the other so that the other may seek Christ through you.