Life is rather crazy at the moment. Naomi’s grandfather is in the hospital and not expected to leave it. We are moving in less than a week and are still not sure if we have enough cash to do so. Our apartment is a complete mess, I still have major class work to do (including a research paper that is taking a ton of time) and packing still needs to be done in heaps and piles. The pictures here of our apartment’s living room at the moment could be a picture of my life. A mixture of chaos and organization, a whole host of common elements thrown together so closely that it is almost impossible to make out what they are all. This is far from the worst or craziest time in my life, but it is enough to have shown me a troubling pattern.
Almost invariably, when life starts to look like my living room, the most interesting pieces of advice will come out of people’s mouths. The most common and heartfelt comment is that “God is with you.” Now I can testify to this being true, God has truly been seen in this move and how everything has worked out, and I trust in how everything will continue to work out. However, like so often in the Old Testament, God is easiest to see after the fact. During the storm we do not often have the blessing of seeing God with us, we just see the wind tearing through our lives.
How we see God working through the storms of our lives is usually through other believers. So when we say “God be with you” to someone in trouble we had better recognize that if we truly want these people to see God, we need to be willing to show God to them through ourselves. I have had many well-meaning believers tell me that “God is with me” when I have struggled at times throughout my life, and then they have walked away. They, and I so often, used God’s presence as an excuse for neglecting to help these hurting people ourselves. That doesn’t show God to them, it just hurts them because at that moment they cannot see God, but can only see their own trouble.
When you can’t see God through your troubles, but desperately need to know God is there, God’s people are the only sight of the divine you have. And simple platitudes only show a God who doesn’t care. Those people who have told me “God will be with you” and walked away have not shown me anything of God that I care to acknowledge, not love, support, guidance, empowerment, or even true encouragement.
Where I have seen God through this time is through those people who have been willing to act as God’s hands and feet for me. I had a great friend recently fly from Oregon to Kansas City to help me pack and be an encouragement for two and a half days. I could see God’s love for me shining through him. As he passed me in my hallway with another box he had packed for me I knew God was with me in a way that whole hosts of people saying those words could never convey to me.
If you want to see God in my life right now look to the wonderful people of my church in San Francisco who spent two months tirelessly going to open house after open house, trying to hunt down a place for us to live so that we wouldn’t have to worry about that too. Look to the family who paid for our first month’s rent and deposit themselves after only meeting us once, just so that we could have the house a few days earlier than if we had to mail a check to the rental place. Those people shine a little part of God’s love and presence into our lives right now. Through their actions and compassion we can see God shining out at us.
Next time you’re reading the Bible, just keep a tally of how often God works through people versus how often God just breaks into our world unaided. Most often it’s through people who are willing to act as God’s representatives for others. So next time you find yourself reminding people that God is with them, make sure that you are willing not only to say the nice words, but to show God’s love to them yourself. Because when people are in the midst of a storm, even a little one, you might be the only clear image of God that they see.
Almost invariably, when life starts to look like my living room, the most interesting pieces of advice will come out of people’s mouths. The most common and heartfelt comment is that “God is with you.” Now I can testify to this being true, God has truly been seen in this move and how everything has worked out, and I trust in how everything will continue to work out. However, like so often in the Old Testament, God is easiest to see after the fact. During the storm we do not often have the blessing of seeing God with us, we just see the wind tearing through our lives.How we see God working through the storms of our lives is usually through other believers. So when we say “God be with you” to someone in trouble we had better recognize that if we truly want these people to see God, we need to be willing to show God to them through ourselves. I have had many well-meaning believers tell me that “God is with me” when I have struggled at times throughout my life, and then they have walked away. They, and I so often, used God’s presence as an excuse for neglecting to help these hurting people ourselves. That doesn’t show God to them, it just hurts them because at that moment they cannot see God, but can only see their own trouble.
When you can’t see God through your troubles, but desperately need to know God is there, God’s people are the only sight of the divine you have. And simple platitudes only show a God who doesn’t care. Those people who have told me “God will be with you” and walked away have not shown me anything of God that I care to acknowledge, not love, support, guidance, empowerment, or even true encouragement.
Where I have seen God through this time is through those people who have been willing to act as God’s hands and feet for me. I had a great friend recently fly from Oregon to Kansas City to help me pack and be an encouragement for two and a half days. I could see God’s love for me shining through him. As he passed me in my hallway with another box he had packed for me I knew God was with me in a way that whole hosts of people saying those words could never convey to me.
If you want to see God in my life right now look to the wonderful people of my church in San Francisco who spent two months tirelessly going to open house after open house, trying to hunt down a place for us to live so that we wouldn’t have to worry about that too. Look to the family who paid for our first month’s rent and deposit themselves after only meeting us once, just so that we could have the house a few days earlier than if we had to mail a check to the rental place. Those people shine a little part of God’s love and presence into our lives right now. Through their actions and compassion we can see God shining out at us.
Next time you’re reading the Bible, just keep a tally of how often God works through people versus how often God just breaks into our world unaided. Most often it’s through people who are willing to act as God’s representatives for others. So next time you find yourself reminding people that God is with them, make sure that you are willing not only to say the nice words, but to show God’s love to them yourself. Because when people are in the midst of a storm, even a little one, you might be the only clear image of God that they see.
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