Another lie about God

There is yet another lie about God many people come to believe. Those of us who have suffered (and had our ability to trust traumatized) can fall victim to this one as well: God just isn’t particularly active in our lives. He doesn’t really care all that much.

Oh, yes, we can fall for this one. After all, we’ve been pushed aside, dismissed, neglected, and told we just didn’t matter. This is the default we’re set to, coming from a childhood of abuse. If we don’t work to correct that default, it is difficult to navigate the current Christian ideals of putting others first, dying to self, and other notions of selflessness without concluding we don’t matter to God, not personally.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

God knows the number of hairs on your head (Luke 12:7). God has saved every tear you have shed (Psalm 56:9). God has y0ur name written on his palm (Isaiah 49:16). And, look at your own heart. If your heart is moved at the sight of a baby, a child, an animal, a flower, how can you doubt that the heart of God is not moved by the sight of you? Can God love less than a heart he has made?

“I know this,” you may say or think, but do you? We glibly say we know, when what we really mean is, “I have heard this, over and over.” The knowledge doesn’t find a home in us. It takes work for it to find a home. It has to fight with our fears, our anger, our doubts — and those are loud and messy. The knowledge that we are loved personally by God is a gentle thing (at first). It’s like picking up on a new sound, one far in the distance. It is a nice sound, an attractive one, one we become curious to hear better. With each step toward it (chosen and deliberately followed), we hear its tone, its melody, its resonance. We realize it is a flow, a force, a persistent presence. More steps bring us quite close — it can fill our ears, and the power of it can take our breath away!

This is God, and oh, yes, He cares!

Reflection

Sitting under the Juniper, have you become aware of a desire, an attraction within, a motivation that seems not just your own? What thoughts, beliefs, fears fight against your naming this force within as God?

What moves your heart most — an animal? children playing? a rainbow? Whatever it is, begin there. Make that your meeting ground with God. Become aware of His presence too as you enjoy this sight.

Prayer

Dear God, I don’t know if I have heard the sound of You within me or not. I’ve allowed other sounds to get really loud. Help me to realize their volume doesn’t matter. No other sound can drown the sound of You. If I attend, I will hear. Help me to believe … and hear.

What moves you? Begin there. Become aware of God within you, in that moment.