Ignoring God

Don’t you think it’s sad that we often do not notice God? I hate being ignored. And I don’t suppose that God likes it very much either. I think that we ignore Him a lot. He has gone to great lengths to let us know certain things about Him. One of those truths is that He is very much present and active in this world and in our lives. Still, we often don’t pay Him much attention.

The whole invisibility thing doesn’t really help matters. But honestly, I think that’s just an excuse. God has done plenty to make His presence known. The truth is that I’ve developed the bad habit of thinking life and breath is all about me. I often don’t even try to notice Him.

This sort of ignoring God then becomes disgraceful when we have little gatherings to talk about Him (or tell about Him) – and we act like we’ve been with Him. But truthfully, we haven’t. So we overcompensate by being really assertive and sometimes defensive about what we are certain must be true about Him. (We can’t remember exactly where that passage is…the one that backs up our assertions…but it’s in there somewhere!)

When crisis arrives we find ourselves angry with God. We cry out, “Where were you? Why don’t you care? Why didn’t you rescue me?” Don’t those questions seem a bit odd in light of our tendency to ignore Him every other minute of our day? If I were God, I would bellow, “I’m not talking to you right now! So there! Now you know what it feels like!”

Thankfully, I’m not God! The amazing thing about Him is that He seems to always accept our return. He endures a lifetime of going unnoticed, and then takes us back. Completely! In a heartbeat! If there is a forgiveness gap to overcome, it is self induced. He is more than willing to reengage with us again, and again, and again…

So today I commit myself (again) to notice God more. How about you? Wanna join me? God is present in our midst. Let’s spend life noticing Him. What kinds of glorious things might happen if we did just that?