"God does not know how to be absent"

"Most of us experience throughout most of our lives a sense of absence or distance from God" -- agree or disagree? I have to agree. I have been very serious about my life with God for many years, and I will struggle with feeling distant from him. Can you relate? I tend to think this says more about us than it does about God. In other words, when we feel distance from him, it isn't because he has gone somewhere. It's because we have not been paying attention to his presence.


To sharpen the point, Martin Laird writes, “God does not know how to be absent. The fact that most of us experience throughout most of our lives a sense of absence or distance from God is the great illusion we are caught up in; it is the human condition” (Into the Silent Lands, p. 15). Think about how it changes the way we approach all sorts of daily situations when we live out of the illusion that God is absent or distant.


Now try something today. Chew on this thought -- that "God does not know how to be absent." Roll it over in your mind. What happens as a result?

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 24, 2011 at 7:41 PM

    I love this post. And, I can totally relate. In the past I have found it so easy to place the blame on God for HIS distance, when in all actuallity it was the exact opposite. I did a pretty good job of putting up my walls...no wonder there was distance!!!! :-)

    Jen Smith

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