Life is this simple. We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent, and God is shining through it all the time. This is not just a fable or a nice story. It is true. If we abandon ourselves to God and forget ourselves, we see it sometimes, and we see it maybe frequently. God shows himself everywhere, in everything–in people and in things and in nature and in events. It becomes very obvious that God is everywhere and in everything and we cannot be without him. It’s impossible. The only thing is that we don’t see it.–Thomas Merton
We can’t do anything about God’s freedom to withdraw his presence from us, except to keep on walking through the dark night. But we can do something about our inability to be fully present to the God who is always there.
What is keeping us from being more present to the God all around us? Rolheiser points to three contributing factors.
1. We are self-centered/narcissistic. We have reduced life to phrases that begin with the word “my”.
He says, “When we are excessively self- preoccupied, we tend to see nothing beyond our own heartaches and problems. Our sense of reality shrinks accordingly and it is not then surprising that we have trouble believing in the reality of God since we have trouble perceiving any reality at all beyond ourselves.”
2. We?re obsessed with productivity and pragmatic activity. We trust the scientists and are skeptical of the mystics.
3. We are impatient/restless. We have no capacity for delayed gratification
Our lives are saturated with so many other experiences that we have no room left for an authentic experience of God.
It’s possible for us to structure our lives in such a way that God becomes unnecessary and therefore is no longer a felt reality.
It’s easy to blame God and wonder why he hides himself the way he does.
What if God is not the one who is doing all the hiding? What if, like Adam and Eve in the garden, we?ve hidden ourselves from God?
Here?s a question I?ve been asking myself lately: Have I ordered my life in such a way that I?m actually hiding from God?
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
I haven’t commented in a while, but I have just tuned in to the “felt presence of God” conversation, and I was reminded of a passage in the Screwtape Letters. CS Lewis writes:
“Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do the Enemy?s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”
I’ll make bold to say this: Satan is not particularly worried by Christians who live for their sentimentalities, who constantly take their emotional pulse and read it as a pagan would chicken livers and tea leaves, who pursue the “felt” presence of God as a child chases a butterfly across a meadow. I think, in fact, that he finds them delightfully amusing.
But Christians who are convinced that God must be true, though all men (and all feelings) are liars (cf. Romans 3:4), and who actually walks by that faith (2 Corinthians 5:7). I think they scare the Hell out of him…or would that be into him?
Wade,
Isn’t there an “all seeing eye?”
Wade,
Perhaps you’ve touched a nerve with your ‘hiding from God’ question. I noticed that Hall and Oates have already garnered more attention than this post. I doubt it’s due to lack of relevance, however. The topic stretches my mind. I’ve been watching this conversation series on the presence of God, several times typing a comment only to delete it before pressing send. It’s a worthwhile conversation!
Wade,
Great post. The Felt Presence of God series of posts have been great. Been in my mind a lot lately. The whole earth is indeed full of His Glory.
Don