Any break is always weird for a college student. So much of your time in a day is spent with these people, who you share a room with, a hallway with, classes with, free time with, an entire life with. There are moments where you laugh so hard your stomach hurts the next morning, and there are times when you are so somber you say nothing to one another but simply bask in their presence. The relationships you can grow in college will be unlike any other you will have in your life.
Juxtapose that with Thanksgiving break. Family that you see for maybe two weeks out of the year, both around holidays, but for the most part don't hear as much from. They don’t ask the same questions every time out of malice, but legitimately. It has been a year since you’ve seen them after all. You love them, sure, but for some of them, it would really take a minute to recognize any differences in the relationship you have with them because the time spent with them is so small. In an increasingly isolated society, this is becoming more and more an issue. The relationship just isn't what it used to be.
I’ve certainly noticed some occasions where my faith has related more to the second statement than the first. You know when you’ll talk to God, and then be content with not even acknowledging Him again till the next season comes around. It may be shorter times between, like Sundays or even family meals, but the time spent is not of value. You ask Him the same things, smile, and walk back out the door. God can become a holiday relative, almost a side character to the grand story of your life.
Far be it from us! This increasingly distant and passive nature for God has been something I’ve been feeling at times myself. It’s been so busy, and I’m mostly a good person, I’ll have my ups and downs every now and again, but there are almost times when a feeling of “I don’t need God right now” washes over. Sure, the grandparents who always bring the ham are wonderful to see, but I don't need ham every day.
Changing Perspectives
And that’s where our issue is. We’ve understood God all wrong. I had a wonderfully eye-opening conversation about prayer the other day before the break that really challenged my perspective on what a relationship with God looks like. It started with this question: How do you think about God when you pray? Now, I knew my answer pretty well, it wasn’t anything complicated. It was even the same way I began some of my prayers. When I pray, I leave everything behind. I emancipate myself from my surroundings, and I walk to the foot of the throne, bowing down and asking for the attention of the almighty creator of the universe.
That’s when my friend told me his posture, which blew my mind entirely. When he goes to pray, he’ll focus on something in his room. The window, the desk, something there, tangibly. He’ll begin to think about the ways God impacted it, the way that God weaved together atoms and molecules and structures to make this thing. Then, he’ll speak to God as if He was sitting next to that thing. In the room.
It was mind-blowing! A realization of this way completely shattered my brain for a minute. My friend was quick to point out that this shouldn’t be all that mind-blowing, that this was a fairly simple way to think about prayer, but to me, this turned everything on its head. In my view of prayer, it was a laborious process, to go somewhere else, and speak to a caring but unrelatable creator. And that isn’t a bad thing, God is a divine and holy God, who’s nature is far beyond our ability to grasp, and we can only begin to make assertions towards. He rules the universe with a word and creates planets and galaxies with his voice. God is, in a sense, very unlike us. But God is not removed from us. He is not so distant that we have to go on some grand journey to find where He may be.
Approachable King?
He never intended us to be distant from Him. In Genesis 2, we get a more detailed account of the narrative of the creation of Man. Genesis 1:26 asserts we were created in His image, but there’s something a bit deeper than just tiny mirrors running amok. When God had created man, He cared for him enough to provide for him what he needed (2:18;22), He placed him in a beautiful setting (2:4-15), and left him rules to obey for his own prosperity (2:16-17). It’s not till the third chapter that we get the final detail of that relationship, sadly after that door was closed. In verse 8, when it’s describing the desperate plight of Adam and Eve to hide themselves, it mentions that “they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” God created them not to be distant, but so that in the cool of the day He can walk and talk with them. Their purpose wasn’t service, it wasn’t vanity, it was a committed relationship.
Even now, the people of God, His church, are His bride. Ephesians 5 contains instructions for husbands and wives in their union, but the whole idea is written in terms of the love Christ showed for us:
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish… For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church… This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church (Eph 5:25-27;29;32).
The god we serve loved us so much that He likens it to a husband and bride. That’s not some on-again, off-again situationship. That is commitment. However, it is a mutual commitment, that requires both parties putting in the effort to draw near to one another. He’s already done that, He “gave himself up for her,” now the ball is in our court. Will we treat the Lord and Savior as if he’s worth our time, Or will we just care for Him the next time we crave ham?
God in a Tiny Cell?
Yet, this is not the only way we disservice our own walk with God. Sometimes, we treat our relationship with God as if it's a prison visit. Something terrible has happened, and so we’re gonna go find what we need, the info we can take to reassure ourselves. There’s seemingly no way out of the situation, so we’re at least going to get some closure. Or maybe we will just use the visitation hours model and treat Him similarly. God, you get Sunday morning, occasionally Sunday nights, and if I’m really in a good mood and it's not raining, we’ll give you a Wednesday every now and again. We’ll talk to you for a quick jaunt at meals, maybe send some correspondence every now and again. This is not the God we serve either. He’s not limited or maintained to some box until its time for us to put our hours in. If we treat church visitation like prison visitation, we’ll slowly come to find we’re really the ones in the cell. Limiting our relationship with God does nothing to Him, He is infinite and mighty, but it will ruin us! Our relationship with the God who sustains us is the best part of our life here on earth! We send ourselves to a cell if we treat him any differently.
Insatiable Relationship
So what does He say about these things, then? “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). Be looking for the answer (Acts 17:11). Remember those friends I mentioned at the very beginning? Those are friendships that I will take with me all of my life because we did everything together. Truly the hardest thing about graduating will be having to say goodbye to all of them. God wants that kind of relationship with us. He wants a relationship that does everything together. He has not put himself far away.
That’s what Paul exhorts the Athenians with in Acts 17. As he’s evangelizing to a ploytheistic, philosophical, and logically minded group of Scholars, Paul has a very classical argumentation style. God’s personability and Man’s purpose are both being simultaneously addressed to the Athenians. He even quotes some of their own sources and thinkers in order to bolster his point.
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,“‘For we are indeed his offspring (Acts 17:26-28).
Paul is not painting the picture of an impersonal God using humanity to grant his Olympic ego, nor is He limited to human desires, but made us to desire Him. He sustains us. He is not far from us. And, He cares for us (1 Peter 5:6-7).
We cannot fall into the trap of limiting God to be a holiday relative. He’s not sitting in a jail cell waiting for a visit. God is continually wishing to get back into that relationship we had before the fall. He’s drawn close to us, He’s given up His son for us, and He’s asking for the same commitment back. I want to challenge you to have a relationship that is constant. Tell Him everything. Include Him in everything. Ask for His advice on everything, and then be willing to go find out what His answer is. He’s not hiding from you. He’s not making you go through a whole song and dance just to catch a glimpse, He’s sought you out, and He’s waiting for the same. Cling to Him.
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