Sooner or later, any thinking human being who senses he/she is not alone in the universe -- because the heart awakens to the undeniable Presence of God -- wonders. Wonders about a hundred questions, and then some.
Can I understand this Presence?
Can I know?
Can I understand what control this Presence has in the universe? in the world? in my life?
Can I communicate? Must I just listen? Can I respond? Will there be an exchange?
Can I discern what this Presence has done? is doing? will do?
What plan, if any, is this Presence working out in the flow of history? in my generation? In my life?
Am I in the dark? wandering through the grey? Might I walk in the Light?
Don't you wonder what God is doing? Just when when we think we have Him figured out, just when we hope that we can count on what is likely, next....well, so often our predictions fall short and our hopes just miss the mark.
For a long time, I have "gotten" God and then again, I have not. There's no taming God, no predicting Him, no end to the surprises -- good and ill -- that flow and crest and recede in our experience. Sometimes it feels like you're finally getting to know that loveable, old grandfather you've been related to for years. Then, in the next moment, you feel like Siegfried and Roy, surprised, torn apart by a mauling.
Joplin, Missouri - May 22, 2011.
"For your sake we are being put to death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." Paul suggests this lot for serious Jesus followers (Romans 8:36).
To be sure, there are multiplied assurances in the New Testament Scriptures that this Inscrutable, Unpredictable Presence is nonetheless a loving Father who will bring his faithful children safely home, but not necessarily through safety. Hebrews 11 tells us that by faith, some conquered kingdoms while others were sawn in two. By grace through faith, we belong to the King. His redemptive sacrifice and overwhelming resurrection power have changed us forever, but the promised Kingdom has not yet taken over in this crippled world.
Time and time again, in the quiet of respite and also in the thrashing of thunderstorm, we are asked to trust in the higher ways, the inscrutable purposes of God. "In all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us" (Romans 8:38).
Really? Yes. Nothing "will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." There is a higher love which will bring us home, someday, to a higher place. To a Presence, a Person, whose face, when we see it, will answer all our questions.
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