When life is good, we have no problems believing God is near. There are times when he's close and you have chill bumps and the songs you sing about him are exciting. You open up your Bible and you're amazed at how the words jump off the page at you. You see things you haven't seen before and maybe experience things you never have experienced. Everywhere you look, there's God. He's close.
You have a problem, you pray and God answers your prayer. Your kids have a problem and you encourage them to pray about it. God answers their prayer. Again, God is so close. And you're glad that God is doing what you think he should be doing. Many of us can think back to times where God was clearly with us. If you're like me, you grew up going to church camp and at the end of the camp, we all held hands and sang and threw our sticks in the fire. We we're so excited about God and often sensed his presence. We came home from camp and God seemed to be in everything. We've all had those seasons.
Then something happens. You go through a season where it seems like he disappears. You hit a bump in the road and say, "God, ok, we've had bumps before and I trust you to be there for me and come through for me." And God does not respond. You are trusting God to work through your circumstances and everything gets worse. And this time you open up the Bible to find comfort and sense nothing. You pray prayers and stop in the middle and ask, "Who am I talking to? This isn't helping."
Before we know it, it seems like God vacates our circumstances. He vacates our emotions. At times he seems to vacate the world. For sure he seems to vacate your life. And you look around and you think, "Where's God?"
If we stay in a "where's God" season too long, we might begin to wonder if we are just making up all this "God stuff". We wonder if God even exists. Or we might conclude that he exists, but he's not a personal God. Life happens with no rhyme or reason. When life is good, we say "Oh there's God." And when life is bad, we say, "Where's God?" Life gets better and we see God. Life gets worse and he disappears again. So we think maybe there is no God or maybe there is a God, but he's not a personal God.
The critics say that we have just made up this "God" thing as a filter through which to interpret all of life. We've created him to help us feel better about things and to better explain things to ourselves and children.
Ever wonder that? You may be in a "where's God" moment now. And God isn't acting like you think God is supposed to act. Your faith is starting to nose-dive. You have started thinking all kinds of strange things about God. Because after all, if you were God, you know what you would do for you, right? You know how you would react to your situation if you were God. And so you're wondering, "Where's God?"
THE DILEMMA
There's not much comfort in knowing that you and I are not the first to deal with this "where's God" dilemma. We are not the first individuals to wonder who is crazier, us or God? In fact, if you were to read the Bible and look at the stories, you could take a pencil and write "where's God, there's God" down the side of almost every page. Because there were times where God showed up and then disappeared. Even Bible people were asking, "Where's God?" Then he'd show up, "Oh, there's God." Throughout the Bible, you see this. Implication? This is normal. There's nothing wrong with you. And there's nothing wrong with God. It is his strange and mysterious way.
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