Where is God?

Bad things happen in this world and most of the time when we are upset about how things happened we tend to ask Where is God? Where was God when 9-11 happened? Where was God in Katrina? In Irene? when the earthquakes hit? when the wildfires blazed? when that child was abducted and sold as a sex slave? where was God when we lost our house? I lost my job? Where was God when she got raped? He got murdered? We got he deceptively got millions and we honestly went broke? Where was God when...? pick a tragedy and fill in the blank.

We demand to know where God is in a tragedy because we somehow believe if God was "there" then the tragedy wouldn't have happened. We have this view of God in our world today as the preventor of all things bad. And when God doesn't prevent something bad from happening we can blame him. We question is true sovereignty or even his existence. Why do feel the right to blame God? Because we believe that since God has the power to stop things from happening He must have chosen to allow a bad thing to happen to us. Some take this even further to even give evidence that there is no God at all. Or to choose not to trust a God who operates that way.

I don't purport to have all the answers but here is something I want to offer. Perhaps we are asking the wrong question. Instead of asking where is God? or why did God let happen?

What would happen if we asked: God, where am I?

Follow me a second on this. This question assumes a lot. It assumes you believe in God. It assumes you believe that God is in relationship with mankind. It assumes man can choose the degree and depth of his relationship to God.

Following all of those assumptions, if we ask "God, where am I?" in life's tragedies perhaps the answers could bring more comfort. Am I in a place to hear God? Am I in a place to let God direct me? And I in a place to allow God to comfort me? Am I in a place to allow God to correct me?

The Bible says God doesn't change. He is the same yesterday today and forever. He is...here's a christianese word...omnipresent which means everywhere all the time. In tragedies, He is where He was always been. In good times. He is where He has always been.

Believe it or not. That is good news to me. Here is where my biblical worldview is going to come out. God is and will always be in the very same "place" when good things happen and bad things happen.
The BRAVE lesson for me is trust is a hard "mother *shut your mouth*" to learn and live by. (Did you like my Shaft reference :)

In tough and confusing times I can seek solace by:
1. asking God where is my mental and emotional state on an issue?
2. assessing what that state reveals about my beliefs
3. turning to God to get through it not away from Him

If I am completely honest with myself, I don't always like it this approach. At times, I still demand more concrete answers but after the fist shaking and hissy fit have passed, God is still there and where is always been waiting for me to see the trust lesson.

Wholeheartedly me,

Julia