Why is God so far away?

Because Christianity centers on a relationship with God through Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit there is always the tendency for God to seem so far away...



If we had a religion where God is supposed to be far away, directing life--as it were--through a series of commands or jump-starting some physical process...it would not bother us that God seems so far away. Alas, we have borrowed this idea that God wants a relationship with us from our Jewish ancestors, and so we sit by the rivers of Babylon, dried tongues a'hanging, while our captors goad us into song...And we worry that God seems so far away.



But then I hear about Egypt, about people rising up against established tryanny, and although I know it will make my gas prices go up, I hear the cry of God for people to live, explore, dance, share, and grow in ways that could only be explained by the hand of God. (OK, maybe Twitter too!) Even though almost all of the people involved are not of the same faith as myself, I hold that the God I worship wants them to be a free as I am...I mean, God did not create freedom just for Christians, right? I want my peers in Tunisia, Egypt...even this morning I hear Jordan-- to be able to expand life into all the realms of God's glorious creation. The status quo is always for the greedy and the lazy...and I am not interested in that.



So just when I think God is far away, CNN shows me a young Egyptian protesting against the shackles of tryanny and ignorance...so I realize God is not so far away...it is just that I wasn't looking close enough. Because, let's face it--if God can protect and guide people to freedom in a place like Egypt, it doesn't seem too improbable that God might be watching and reading right along with me. And most days? That's close enough.



May your tables be full, and your conversations be true.