You are right here!

Sometimes, God seems especially silent.  This has been one of those summers.  I'm not sure why.  Here's one of my never-ending questions:   Is God's silence because of me?  Am I not being still enough to listen?  Or is His silence on purpose to keep me where I belong?  Is God really ever silent?  I continue to wait and listen...for His Word promises that He is never far.  I'm right here...He's right here yet sometimes I just can't hear Him.  I just wanna be real, that's all.

I am constantly aware; I'm observing and listening to people in my world.  As I observe, I wonder if people have found what they are searching for?  Are they fulfilled in this life?  Yesterday, my daughter and I were in a department store.  A certain family was extremely loud and rude as they searched for school clothes for their child.  At the corner of my eye, I saw and heard everything.  (It was quite obvious there was no self-respect or filters to be found.)  As we moved on, my almost 10 year old whispered, "Mom, that's disgusting!  That woman's belly button was showing and she smelled really, really bad!"  I replied, "Yes, honey, you're absolutely right.  But, we still need to be kind."  How should I have responded?  She pointed out the obvious truth.  I can't sugar-coat the facts of life...and I won't.  (I'm just so thankful that she is now at a place that she whispers her comments.  ;) )  Phew.

My heart breaks as people just seem to wander through life so much of the time...clueless about any sort of purpose and seemingly so unfulfilled.  Often I hear the familiar phrase, "I need to find myself."  In summary, to me this just means "I'm lost."  So, they abandon everyone and everything that matters because they need to find themselves??  That perplexes the life out of me.  I just want to scream, "You're right here!!"

Instead of trying to find ourselves, what if we allow Jesus to find us?  A favorite scene from the movie, "The Count of Monte Cristo" says this:  "I don't believe in God."  "It doesn't matter, He believes in you." Here's that scene:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RcB8ta2Ok0.   Allow Jesus to believe in you.  Allow Him to have your heart for there is a no return policy.  He longs to fulfill our every void and love us unconditionally in a way we have never known.  Stop running.  Just freeze.  Allow Jesus to create a beautiful picture out of your messy life.  We ask, "How can He do that?"  I don't know.  What I do know is that He's in the miracle making business.

"Jesus invites us, in this life, in this broken beautiful world, to experience the life of heaven now.  He insisted over and over that God's peace, joy and love are currently available to us, exactly as we are." ~Rob Bell.

Right here...exactly as you are...