Where's God?

Pastor Phil Print asked the following on his blog:

Where's God?
Do you ever wonder why God doesn't make it a little easier for us to see/experience Him in our daily lives? Honestly, couldn't God be a little more "obvious"? Couldn't He use a little louder voice? Or hit us with a little bigger stick?

I've been thinking about that a lot these days. William Barry writes, "Whether we are aware of it or not, at every moment of our existence we are encountering God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who is trying to catch our attention, trying to draw us into a reciprocal conscious relationship."

I know what Barry says is true, but why is it such a struggle to encounter God?

Thoughts? Comments?

My response to his question was:

The issue stems from a Western modern dualism that can be seen manifesting in many other ways as well. We are prone to compartmentalize our lives by secular and sacred when this is actually a false dichotomy. This is worsened by something you mentioned in your sermon(9/16 or 9/17) in that we get so busy that we miss the God moments. The struggle to encounter God is based on the fact that encountering God is not a priority in our lives. We shove God to the cracks and margins of our lives. Our prayer life becomes a wishing well in the sky. Michael Jordan didn't become the basketball player we know him as over night. He worked hard at it, years and years of INTENTIONAL effort. While he certainly was gifted by God, it took intentionality on his part to develop that. The same is true for our spiritual formation. We must be intentional about it. Spiritual formation doesn't just happen on its own, we must work at it. We must raise its value in our community. This is also worsened by our microwave lifestyle where everything is about instant gratification. We don't want to be formed, we want to get the DVD and have all the answers 90 minutes later. Another factor is that we are not accountable in this area, and rarely are we willing to hold others on a personal level accountable for this. We (the church) speak corporately about these kinds of things, but rarely do we have a 1-on-1 plan for getting this done. Small groups are a very good entry point for this type of change. Making friends in your church will also help this. Moving from a consumer mentality into a servant mentality will also facilitate this. It will be an uncomfortable transition, change frequently is. But when you are standing on the other side, standing more closely with God, seeing His influence and presence in your life, you will know it was all worth it.

What do you think?

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