Tuesday, September 8, 2009

I hear that train a comin'

If you are troubled by the where abouts of God then you need not look too far. Stop, Look, and Listen is what we do at a railroad crossing. You look down the track. You look up the track as far as you can. You listen for the rumbling sound of the locomotive. Sometimes you will hear the engine from afar and just as you suspected the red lights start to flash at the crossing because the train will soon be upon you. There is always caution when approaching that railroad crossing because maybe at the time there is no train in sight but you never know when another one will come rumbling down the tracks.

With God it's the same way. The only problem that I can see is that there are way too many times that I fail to stop, look, and listen and the presence of God just passes right by. You can always find God because He is Omni-Present. In other words He is every where all the time. The enemy of God does not have this marvelous power. He can only exist in certain places at certain times with the help of his demonic forces.

The good news is that we can experience the presence of God anytime if we would choose to stop, look, and listen. Church services and sermons don't always facilitate a real encounter with God because those things are too often contrived by man. God is in life. He is in every day life. We all know about the beauty of God's creation but what happens when we really stop, look, and listen. What about at the post office or the coffee shop? The people that serve us there, are they in any way a part of God's presence in our life. Those folks may be a little rough around the edges just like anybody else but why do they exist anyway. Is God trying to meet us right where we live and breathe? Was that His plan? Maybe we have been looking for God in all the wrong places and that has left us wanting. Maybe God isn't religious at all and freely available in the midst of our every day drama.

Isn't it a bit curious that when you read the scriptures you will find that Jesus loved hanging out with the non-religious crowd. I find that peculiar and at the same time quite revealing. Jesus loved life. He loved being around life as He and His Father prescribed. Could it be that God can be found in every day life? Stop, Look, and Listen. You may be surprised at what you hear and what you see.