Why You Never Need to “Find” God

“Crazy.  I was just about to call you.” I can almost hear his smile on the other end of the line.

“That’s just the way it is when you have been married a long time.” His words confirm our heart connection that only comes after knowing someone, deep, personally, intimately…for a very long time.

But I can never understand how He can speak the exact thing I was thinking, or finish my sentences, as if he somehow took up camp, there inside my brain; reading every thought, knowing exactly what I am going to say…even before I say it.

With our foster baby, birthday parties, camp, and so many other things occupying my time…I have not been able to grab my leather bound Bible and curl up on the coach for five hours at a time.

And I get that sometimes worship comes in works, and prayers like darting arrows, God hears just as much as long, elaborate, face-planted devotion…or songs that go on for hours.

And yet, this morning God reminds me, “I know the look in your eyes, the tilt of your head, I know every thought, and what makes your heart beat in a way no one ever has.”

And why do I forget, God is not far off, someone I don’t need to bow my head to, fold my hands and tell him over and over how much I love Him…like I did when I was five years old?


Why do I feel like I need to attract him with good works, or right thinking, or sitting in quiet for hours and hours before He’ll meet me?

When He has never left or forsaken us.  He is with us always…even unto the end of the age.

Yes, God is a God who still shines, though we are in the shadows.  He is a God who still loves, though we might approach Him with nothing.  He is a God who draws near to us…even in our weakest moments.

And I want a God like that.  One who knows my every thought, one who hears my unspoken purposes.  One who calls me exactly when I need Him…regardless of my deserving of Him to be near…

Other religions say you must pray, and fast, do good works, or earn the presence of a living God who is mean, distant, or conditional on our behavior.  But if God is omnipresence, doesn’t that mean He is constantly, continually, always with us?  Doesn’t that say that although we may not see or feel Him….His goodness is only a breathe away?

And oh the saints that didn’t labor in pray for hours on end, fast for three days to lure the God of all creation near them…But oh those that trusted the ever-presence of a God they couldn’t see. Leaning on His fullness, effortlesssly and just naturally, in each and every situation.

For didn’t Jesus tell Thomas, “Greater is he who believes but has not seen”?

And oh when we “get it”, really get that His very breathe, the breathe of God, Ruach Elohim, is in us…here, now, always…regardless of what we do or don’t do to earn it…

That Jesus left so that His ever present Spirit could reside in us, day and night, awake or sleeping, through good times and bad…

And that we can’t ever run far from Him, occupy all our time, or fail to acknowledge the breathe of anyone besides ourselves wtihin us…

He is alive and working in us…always, continually, every hour, and every moment, because the love of the Father surpasses any earthly shadow of human, carnal, fleeting love conditional on how we behave.

My husband “get’s me” when I retreat, when I ramble with passions and future plans to change a world that can be unbelieveably broken.  He knows how I like my coffee, that I like to wake slowly, and that the quiet of nature always fills me with life…

After all, we have been married a long time.

But how much more does The One who brought life out of dusk, who molded us in His image, and called us His and His alone, know every thought, every need, every hair upon our head…

For He cares for the little sparrow, He cares for the lilly’s that sway in the field…

How much more is He there?  How much more does He love and watch over us?

Will you join me in trusting the omnipresence of God today?