And as I park head in to my spot positioning
my car between the two big boulders protecting people like me from Thelma and
Louise-ing it over the cliff, I look up to
see a familiar site, but it looks starkly different this morning.
There is a low fog that has moved in blocking
my view of the miles wide span of the ocean.
Visibility was at about twenty feet or so. I cannot see the horizon, the sky or any of
the blue that is our majestic Pacific. I
can barely make out some of the rocky parts of the shore and the white of the
waves splashing over them.
It was a very bizarre sight and almost looked
very foreign to me as if I was parked somewhere else. But I was sure I was at the right spot. There are the boulders fencing off the edge
of the cliff. There is the park bench
that I sit at from time to time as weather allows. There is the all too familiar No Camping
sign. Yep, this is the spot all
right. I just can’t see the ocean due to
the fog.
I can’t see the waves coming in. I can’t see the calmness of the waters connecting
horizontally with the blueness of the day sky.
No boats visible, no caps of white, no glimmer from the sun reflecting
off of the waters. But, all of that
being said, the ocean was still out there.
It was just for the moment obstructed.
There are times in our faith when it seems
that God is eerily quiet, as if He had stepped out for a bit to fetch His
newspaper from the porch. Or maybe it
seems longer than that, perhaps He is taking a long overdue vacation. Or worst case scenario, maybe He left and
doesn’t want to be friends anymore, because of something offensive that we had
done. Maybe He just got bored with
us. After all I am not very interesting.
But be of good cheer. He has not left, He has not abandoned, He
still wants us, and He still likes us.
Sometimes, for whatever reason, He seems quiet. And sometimes, His quietness seems to
coincide with our needing Him the most. What’s
that all about?
But quietness doesn’t mean that He is
gone. Just because you can’t see Him,
Just because you can’t feel Him, just because you don’t sense His presence or
His direction for your life, does not mean that He has vanished or He is
apathetic to your situation.
He is there, just as I knew the ocean was
there. Even if I couldn’t see it. I knew the ocean was there because the place I
was at was where I have seen it many times over. I knew because all of the indicators were
there. The pull out, the boulders, the sign, the rocky cliff and the beached
waves.
My advice for you is this. Whenever you can’t seem to see God and His
working in your life, check your surroundings.
Make sure you are in the place where you know you have experienced Him
before. Are the things around you those
indicators that this is where you have met Him before? If not, then go to that spot. He will be
there. Is so, and visibility seems
limited, you may have to wait until the fog has lifted.