In the wilderness, we have to wrestle with our questions.  These are the questions that we either ignore or suppress when things are working for us.   The wilderness experience is defined in part by questions that we ask. Why don’t I know where am I going in life? What is my purpose?  Who am I? What am I meant to do? What do I believe? Why is this happening to me? What’s wrong with me? And on it goes.

Another common question that arises out of the wilderness is,

Where is God?

It can seem at times like God is nowhere around. We feel we’ve been let down or abandoned. The Divine is absent or hiding. And we freak out. Ps 104:29 says,

You hide your face, they are troubled.

Troubled might be an understatement.  It is downright frightening and disorienting when it seems God has gone silent on us or worse, turned away from us.

Part of the gift of the wilderness journey is that it’s an opportunity to learn to live by faith in a deeper way. Am I going to continue to believe and trust, even though God seems to be nowhere around?  Do I still believe that God is loving and that Someone has our backs? Can I trust that there is provision?  Do I still believe that there is a good plan and purpose for my life even if we can’t see it and the future looks uncertain?

At this point, you and I have choices. Am I peaceful, hopeful and content only if I can see God’s presence and work in my life?  Or, will I be peaceful, hopeful and content even if God seems is silent and absent?  There are choices to make in the wilderness.

For people trying to live by faith, I believe that God at times “hides”. So what then? We can fall to the ground in an angry puddle of tears like a toddler whose mom has just left him at the babysitters, or we can choose to live by what we’ve known is true of God in the past. Maybe that is part of how we grow and mature and understand the nature and character of God.  I mean, like, you don’t have a meltdown anymore when your mom leaves you, right?

Does Silence Mean God is Absent?

Maybe in the hiddenness, truth is revealed to us that we wouldn’t be able to see otherwise.  It’s easy to mistake the silence of God for the absence of God.  Yet one thing I know is true is that even during those times when God seems far away or absent, these are the times when God is often closer than we know.

So even though things may appear hopeless, confusing and bleak in the natural, that doesn’t need to be our reality. We have the power to choose to believe otherwise.  We haven’t been left high and dry in the past, so God won’t leave us high and dry now even though the circumstances might be very different.  I think that is part of what it means to have faith.

So the question of “Where is God?” isn’t really the question.  Perhaps the question to ask ourselves is, “What am I going to believe about God?”  Even in the silence- because of the silence- God is inviting us to grow in our trust and experience of his love and presence.

Maybe you feel lost, abandoned, let down, confused and you wonder where is God? You may feel alone, but you are not alone.  The invitation is to experience God’s presence in a whole new kind of way.

 

To catch up on this series, you can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Go to the last part of the series now