Where Is God?

• Opening our eyes first thing in the morning and closing them as we slip into dreams
• Drinking our morning coffee in the quiet and rushing hurriedly out the door
• Walking in our neighborhood and driving to work
• Hiking among the trees and sitting in bumper to bumper traffic
• Escaping to your favorite place and in the midst of a crowded, noisy gym
• Catching a sunrise, sunset and even a cold
• Soaking up the sun and staring at the moon
• Holding a new baby when they enter the world and holding the hand of a loved one as they leave it
• Kissing the one we love most and fighting with the one we like least
• Watching a butterfly flit across the lawn in wonder and cramming for an exam
• Listening to a bird call from the tree and listening to honking horns and sirens
• Sitting in the pew at church, or in a jail cell, or on a street corner
• Celebrating a victory with hands raised and pleading for a miracle on bended knee
• Enjoying the light and warmth of a candle and sitting in a space of cold darkness

In the busy, noisy, distraction-filled world it can be hard to feel God’s presence, to hear His voice, but He is always there. We just have to make room, become aware, surrender and receive. The good moments make it easier to feel Him and hear Him. The mundane moments (making dinner, doing laundry, brushing our teeth) give us a chance to strengthen our awareness muscle so in the most difficult moments, we can fight to remember this truth.

I remember feeling God’s presence when I was young. Particularly in the really scary and difficult moments when I was pleading with Him for protection. As I got older, those felt moments faded away. Not because He was no longer present, but because I no longer was. I had no space, no margin. I had no time for silence or stillness. Margin (space + silence + stillness) allows us to slow just enough to open ourselves up to what is beyond the transaction and to see and feel the relationship that is always there waiting to be acknowledged.

Creating space in my days for prayer and contemplation – defined moments of silence and stillness – have helped me foster this felt connection again, and begin to receive messages that I know are Divine. Building these sacred spaces and practices has then allowed me to see, hear, and feel God in the more mundane and most difficult moments. Consistency of commitment to these spaces and practices has been key for me. Profound things do not happen each time I sit for prayer and contemplation.

Especially at first, the sitting in the silence and stillness was deeply uncomfortable. Feelings and thoughts kept coming up I had been trying to avoid. I didn’t know what to do…with my hands, my words, my thoughts…any of it. Am I doing this right? Is this working? What is actually happening? This is a waste of time! What am I doing? I must be crazy! All these things and more showed up very intensely at the beginning. No wonder most people quit before they even really get started!

Slowly over time, as I remained committed to these spaces of silence and stillness, I moved beyond the stress and distraction. At first just for a few seconds, and then longer. Then I started to experience something so beautiful and powerful and real. In the beginning, it was just a feeling. Like a space of nothing and everything. Complete emptiness and wholeness at the same time. I felt deeply held by this warm, dark, loving Presence. Over time, messages started to come in. I began writing them down.

This connection was so real and so true, and yet so unexplainable. I was afraid to tell anyone at first. I kept with this sacred practice and over time I started to see and hear Divine messages during my daily life. In a song lyric, in a written word, through another person’s perspective or point of view shared in conversation. Daily miracles and revelations of God speaking directly to me. Then it started to broaden into the everyday moments I used to take for granted. I could see, feel, hear, and know God’s presence in a:

• Smile from a stranger
• Nice gesture
• Kind word
• Door held open
• Table full of life and laughter
• Compliment
• “Serendipitous” or what I like to call Holy Moment
• Hawk circling overhead
• Cardinal singing to me
• Squirrel looking inquisitively at me from the window
• Baby staring back into my eyes

God brought me full circle. I thought I needed to create space to see, hear, feel, and know Him, and yet all this time He was revealing Himself to me every moment of everyday of my life. I simply needed new eyes and an open heart. I had to shut out all the noise and distraction, pull back from rushing and busyness so that I could realize that He is in it all, and always has been.

My hope in sharing this is that you will not have to take the long way. You can take the shortcut to new eyes and an open heart. He is always in pursuit of our heart, we just have to choose to pursue Him in return.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. -Matthew 7:7-8

Cheers to the radical, reckless, and relentless pursuit of our good, good Father.