When You, Then God by Rusty George & Michael Defazio

Author:Rusty George & Michael Defazio
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Christian Life / Spiritual Growth, RELIGION / Christian Life / Personal Growth, RELIGION / Christian Life / Inspirational
ISBN: 9781496412539
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
Published: 2016-04-05T00:00:00+00:00

Can You Hear Me Now?

I don’t know about you, but I’d like to see the Father. I’d like to know he’s near. I’d like to sense his presence throughout the day, rather than feeling alone. I’d like to know his nature, rather than fearing his wrath. I’d like to trust in his grace, rather than relying on my own good works, such as they are.

When I read about Jesus, I get a sense of God’s goodness and mercy. And when Jesus says, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father,” I think, Great! . . . But how do I do that? The problem is that I fail to see Jesus enough or understand his Father.

This is where my instincts and my upbringing tell me that it’s all my responsibility. As if God were playing a game of cosmic hide-and-seek and it were up to me to find him. The frustration I sometimes feel makes me resonate with a line from the song “Smell the Color 9” by Chris Rice: “I would take ‘no’ for an answer, just to know I heard you speak.”[52]

Of course, this searching for God is nothing new. Ever since the beginning of the church, people have been using every means necessary to try to see Jesus. The early church gave us the New Testament: a collection of eyewitness accounts of the life of Jesus and a selection of letters describing how to live as a community of believers. This book is our good news, our marching orders, and our code of living. Inspired by God and recorded by his servants, the Bible helps us to notice God.

Jesus gave us Communion as a way to remember him. Just before he died, he shared a very important final meal with his closest followers. The point of the meal was to allow Jesus to explain how all our hopes for freedom point to him. After explaining all this, Jesus told us to keep meeting and eating in a similar way so that we will remember who he is and what he came to do. That’s a great way to notice Jesus.

But when we feel that the responsibility to find God is all on us, we tend to need more than just Communion, a church service, and the Bible. That’s why, over the last two thousand years, the people of God have been adding details, customs, and rituals to help themselves visualize God. From saints to bishops to popes and pastors, we often hold up people as icons when we can’t see God. From cathedrals to stained-glass windows, statues, and altars, we create sacred spaces to help us feel closer to God. And from cross earrings to necklaces to tattoos and bumper stickers, we fixate on images to help us remember Jesus.

Our quest to see God can lead to us trying to help him communicate with us. I had a friend years ago who liked to use a Bible-reading method I called Bible roulette. She’d ask God a

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