Where are you, God?

October 21, 1999

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the
garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves
from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the
Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” (Genesis
3:8-9)

Has God ever asked you that question? Amid our frantic lifestyles,
our tape-tranquilized commutes, and our computer-enhanced, televised
reruns of reality, most of us would probably have to reply, “no.” And we
might quickly follow that response with an inaudible, “Thank heavens!”

After all, we are pretty busy with the problems we already have.
Business is booming. The boss wants more overtime. The school wants more
parental involvement, and the church needs Sunday school teachers. The
notion that the God of the universe might
actually want to talk to us is, well, even on a good day a bit more than
we can deal with.

Besides, it wasn’t a real voice at all, was it? Nobody around me
heard it. Perhaps a drink to calm the nerves is in order. And another.
Then another. But God doesn’t need a megaphone. And the still small
voice rings in our ears. “Where are you, Bob, or Bill, or Kathleen, or
Betty? Where are you, my child?”

It was Canon Holmes, of India, who more than twenty-five
years ago called attention to the inferential character of the average
man’s faith in God. To most people God is an inference, not a reality.
He is a deduction from evidence which they consider adequate; but He
remains personally unknown to the individual. “He must be,” they say,
“therefore we believe He is.” –A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, 1948

Where are we, indeed? In a society traveling at the speed of light,
yet going nowhere, where are we? Already our children live in a
different world that we can’t seem to enter, and we no longer recognize
the world our parents grew up in. We hear the family stories at
Thanksgiving or Christmas, but the characters are from another place,
and our own kids can’t wait to get back to the video games. “The past is
another country; they do things differently there.”

The basic western worldview is easily summed up: we arrived here by
accident, and it’s over when we die. Given that view, it makes perfect
sense to “go for the gusto,” and to believe that “he who dies with the
most toys wins.” But such a society would quickly deteriorate into a
bunch of self-serving tyrants, hell-bent on imposing their pleasure on
everyone else. So as a society we need God, even if we don’t believe in
Him. And He certainly is important to institutions like the Church. In
fact, for a society that believes it came from nowhere and is headed
back there at warp speed, many of us have gotten downright spiritual.

For most of us, our “god” is one with whom we are
comfortable, a god who lets us do what we want and who gives us what we
want. That’s what the world of religion is tragically all about —
counterfeiting divinity. –Jan David Hettinga, Follow Me, NavPress,
1996

Such gods don’t ask embarrassing questions like, “Where are you, my
child?” Which is why they suit us so well. No break in our busy schedule
is required. For the devout, a weekly laundry list of needs and wants
can be presented during a moment of silent prayer at the Sunday worship
service. An aunt dying of cancer, a raise at work, world peace.

After all, what would a real God, if He did exist, want with me? And
tragically, few people are more uncomfortable with that question today
than those inside the four walls of many churches. The pastor or priest
sees pandemonium — every congregant hearing a personal voice from God
and — gasp — acting on it! The leadership fears competition: “Hey, I
was elected deacon or elder or overseer this year!” And the congregant
fears disruption of his or her comfortable lifestyle. Far better for all
of us if God would just keep quiet!

The modern scientist has lost God amid the wonders of His
world; we Christians are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders
of His Word. We have almost forgotten that God is a Person. … in the
deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels loves, desires
and suffers as any other person may. … The continuous and
unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul
of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion.
–A. W. Tozer

But of course, He won’t remain silent. God’s never been impressed by
religion. We try to buy Him off with our church attendance and our
offerings and our good deeds, but God will have none of it. He wants us,
you see. “Where are you?” He doesn’t seem to care that we are broken or
fallen creatures, whose ancestors long ago decided to go their own way.
He still wants a relationship. He still sees hope of salvaging us.

The Bible records the names of those who answered in the Old
Testament as prophets, followed by a period of long silence. Then God
became so concerned about us that he came to check up on things Himself.
For His efforts at disturbing our religion, we nailed Him to a cross.
The Good News is that cross became the bridge between us. God still
wants to know, “Where are you?”