God in All Things

Once upon a time I thought it was very difficult to find God. He seemed far away and elusive. I wondered why He had stopped speaking to the world. You know- no more burning bushes. No more voice in the quiet after the storm. No more doves descending from the heavens. No more easily discernible signs.....Wouldn't it just make things a lot easier if He just spoke to us directly like in the Bible? He even spoke from the mouth of a donkey once! How tough would it be for Him to make an appearance on CNN? Wouldn't that clear things up for a lot of people?


What I have come to realize is that this is the thinking of a child. Just as it says in the New Testament: "when I was a child I reasoned like a child". Now that I have grown up in faith I realize that God is indeed everywhere, all the time. All it takes is opening the eyes of your heart to see Him.


My teacher says that the world is overflowing with the Voice of God speaking constantly, yet we miss it most of the time because we aren't looking or listening. He says our "tuners" are broken. Until they are repaired, we miss a lot of what God wants us to hear. That doesn't mean it isn't there.  We just miss it because we are out of tune.  I have indeed found this to be true.


My tuner was broken for awhile. In recent months God has been busy repairing it. As the work has progressed, I have found that I see and hear Him now all over the place. To use a hideous expression (sorry Emma!) I can't swing a dead cat without running into something God wants me to see or hear. Having learned to recognize the hand of God, I can now see the hand of God everywhere.


For example, in my yoga class, we talk about the first principles in nearly every class: Set your foundation. Open to Grace. I have been hearing these same words for over 7 years without much thought. Now I realize that these words are related to faith. We set our foundation on the Rock. We open to His grace. This week we were talking about how difficult poses are a chance to stretch ourselves and grow. Only by struggling a bit, and pushing our bodies past where we feel comfortable, can we go further in the pose and hope to reach the next level. Our faith journeys are the same way. It is our struggles that provide the fertile soil where growth can take place.  I find that as my ears are now open to hear, I notice connections everywhere.  Life seems like a great big giant game of connect the dots. A theme that my yoga teacher embraces for the week echoes words from a sermon or a book I have read the the day before.  I am sitting in a conference and the instructor begins to speak of the exact thing that I have just recently had a long conversation with someone about.  Plans fall through with someone, then at the last minute, something else comes up that ends up being essential.  As I think about all the interconnectedness of it all, there can be no doubt that God's hand is in all these things.....Not long ago I would not have recognized this.


In every opportunity that now presents itself, I wonder what God wants me to see.  In every situation that goes awry, I wonder what God means for me to learn. What I have found is that as you approach all things expecting to be shown something of significance, you will, in fact, find just exactly that. God has things He wants to teach us daily. It is our responsibility to keep our eyes and ears open to see and hear them. A wonderful simple daily prayer is one which asks God to show us what He will today.  To help us keep our eyes and ears open to see and hear it.   To recognize His hand print when He reveals it.  Such prayers, I have found, begin to help us truly see God in all things.    Shalom!