Experiencing God Everyday
For two weeks I’ve challenged myself to continuously keep God in the back of my mind. Every time I thought of God, I would take a picture, in the form of a snap chat, and I’d save it on my phone. When I showed these series of pictures to a grade 9 youth class, one guy raised his hand, and in the most honest and sincere way ask, “What does this have to do with God?”. My only response was, “Exactly!” The boy hit it on the head: my snap story revealed that God doesn’t have an impact on my daily life.
In fact, He isn’t present at all.
The snap story depicts my typical going about independent of God. He is someone I beleive in (or at least I say I do), but when it comes down to it, I forget about Him. For two weeks, other than seeing Him in just service, or when I stepped into the church, I wanted to see where else I actually saw Him in my life, and the results astounded me. I want to tackle that mentality, particularly throughout the Lenten season. The mentality I grew up with instills in me the compartmentalization of God. I should fear God, but never bond with Him. I emphasize His goodness and His power, but never emphasizes that this does not negate a deep and intimate relationship with Him.
Transcendence and Immanence
I recently read a concept known as the transcendence and immanence of God. They are two quite big words, but they reflect a beautiful dichotomy that is present in the Christian faith. The first is that God is transcendent, meaning He exists apart from us and is not subject to the same limitations as us. He is omnipotent and omnipresent. He is without a doubt, far superior to us. However, the immanence of God reflects that it is possible for us to experience His immediate friendship. The immanence of God is truly something incredible when you take into account His transcendence! What a huge privilege that I’ve been given: that I can enjoy an intimate friendship with my God.
Let’s dig into this duality a little further. Consider a relationship you have that can be classified as distant: let’s say the Queen, Trump or Bron Bron! The reason they are distant is because I can never fully understand these people. I will never understand the power, wealth and social status of these people. However, I am in a position to appreciate what they do! I can watch Bron Bron destroy lowly eastern conference teams in the NBA and appreciate that he’s a phenomenal basketball player without really understanding his life. This is an important aspect of our relationship with God. All Christians begin with this transcendent relationship with God: where God is completely separate and distant from us, but His work can be appreciated.
In contrast, there are the relationships of great intimacy and connection. These are the relationship with our friends and family that have deep impact in our lives, founded on strong trust. These relationships contain transparency and love.
So now that we have this picture of two separate relationships, we need to ask ourselves: Where is God? Is my Lord a God for Sunday who exists in a separate realm, or is He a personal friend. One of the grade 9’s again remarked, “To be honest, he isn’t even on the chart.” His response conveys a sentiment that is common in the church. Does our relationship with God exist? If it does, can this relationship be developed into an immanent and real bond? The rest of this blog looks at three practical ways that I can start changing my life to incorporate Christ.
Seeing the Simple Synchronicity
Carl Jung, a 1920’s psychologist, established a concept known as synchronicity. It’s sort of a strange idea, but it essentially boils down to the concept that sometimes things in your life happen close enough together, and although are seemingly unrelated, play a huge role when combined. These events are too related to be a pure coincidence, and Carl attributes it to some cause. Christianity offers up God as the creator and designer of this synchronicity.
Think of events in your life that you still haven't really been able to explain. Let’s say you flunked out of school and ended up somewhere fantastic, or someone passed away in your life and you’ve had internal growth or you were unexpectedly thinking about an old friend, then randomly encountered them later that day. As Christians, these events can actually be interpreted as encounters with Christ. Have you ever unintentionally found a Bible verse that seems directly related to a current spiritual struggle? It’s these underlying forces that show us that God is constantly with us. He is our immediate friend, and leads us to Him.
One story that always intrigues me is the conversion of St. Augustine. Augustine was jumping around to many different philosophies to find meaning in his life, and as a result turned to the bottle and women. He was travelling to Milan, and as the story goes, was sitting on a park bench outdoors, when he heard the voice of a child singing a song. The words were, “Pick it up and read it. Pick it up and read it.” He tried to rack his brain about where he’d heard the tune before, maybe in his childhood, but could not wrap his head around it.
Then, he realized that this song might be a command from God to open and read the Scriptures! He located a Bible, picked it up, opened it and read the first passage he saw. It was from the Letter of Paul to the Romans. Augustine read:
Not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual excess and lust, not in quarreling and jealousy. Rather, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh. — Romans 13: 13–14
The verse touched him immensely, directly relating to his current life choices. He went on to become a great spiritual pillar and found incredible rest in the Lord, incomparable to any philosophy or lifestyle he had previously adopted. He recognized a synchronicity in his life that lead him to the Way. The first practical tip to seeing God every day is becoming sensitive to the synchronicity in life. These small daily gestures from God will remind you that He is near you and present in the small things.
Removing Worry
The second piece of advice is particularly important for University students. Several youth I know are incredibly consumed by their stress to the point that it distracts from their spiritual life. Personally, I stress daily about school assignments, what to eat next, and when the next strike at the University of Toronto is (yes… it happens that often). One lesson I learned from a friend from first year is to never worry. He ingrained in me an attitude of trust in Jesus.
I met this friend in first year university at a basketball tryout, and although I had forgotten my gym clothes and looked ridiculous, he some how gave me the time of day. He was from Richmond Hill and our friendship grew on our 1 hour bus ride back and forth from school. We started to have deeper conversations about our families and culture, and slowly began realizing how similar our lives were. He was a Muslim and soon we dove into inter religious dialogue. We were both invited to attend a campus bible study together, and soon our relationship, although initially founded on basketball, shifted to a Christ centered relationship.
He eventually became a Christian (mind you, through the influence of another, much stronger Christian friend). What blew me away were the challenges he faced. He was in his third year of Aerospace engineering, studying fluid mechanics and immersing his free time in the bible, when he decided to become a Christian. His parents became incredibly angry, expressing their shame and disapproval, and kicked him out of the house. He struggled to find a place to live downtown and was starting to slip a little in his studies. He couch surfed from apartment to apartment, struggled to balance his life and school, he eventually flunked out.
During his baptism, while not having the support of his family, failing school, and struggling to find a steady place to live, he read the verse that brought him through all his tribulations:
Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? — Matthew 6:26
This new Christian was dejected and alone, surely feeling a flurry of strong emotions. And yet not once did he exhibit an ounce of worry. This new Christian saw how much God cares for nature, and confided in that even when his life situation was rough. No your school problems are not too big for God. No failing and dropping out is not too big for God. Your food for tomorrow is not too big for God. Nor is your clothing or finances or gravest sin. So the next practical tip is to look up, see the birds, and remember the deep love that God has for you. If He loves you, and you beleive He loves you, trust that He’ll take care of your life.
Viewing Tribulation as an Opportunity
Tribulation is a school of faith. Recently, both prayers from Jonah and Job have affected my life to change my view on tribulation.
Let’s start with Jonah. Here is a man who runs from God and winds up in the belly of a whale. He begins to complain in the stinking and wretched belly of a large fish, and while the complaints are warranted, he instead cries out in beautiful prayer:
And he said: “I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction, And He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice.” – Jonah 2:2
You heard my voice? I mean Jonah, last time I checked, you were in the belly of a whale? Where in this story did God hear your voice? Where has He answered your prayer Jonah? While most of us pray to the Lord during our tribulation in order to leave it, Jonah thanks God because he knows the importance of this tribulation in his life of faith. He knows that all things come together for good for those who love God, and embraces the tribulation. The tribulation in Jonah’s life is an opportunity for relationship growth, and Jonah thanks God for the opportunity all together.
Job has this exact same reaction! Two verses stand out to me when I read the story of Job. The first is a proclamation of faith, in which Job describes his assurance in seeing God. He recognizes that he is in tribulation but knows that in the end of days he will see God. The tribulations don’t inhibit his faith in God but rather reinforce the existence of God.
“For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God,” – Job 19:25–26
After Job dies, he knows that God will be there. Oftentimes, young Christians express doubt in the presence of God and can’t understand the simple faith of our parents. But the reality is, we know that our Redeemer lives, through the life experiences we go through, particularly the hard ones. The second verse makes an analogy in which God is a blacksmith making us into a purer and better version of ourselves.
When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. — Job 23:10
Use these verses to remind yourself everyday, that your tribulations are God’s hand in your life. See them as opportunity. As Joyce Meyer writes, “If you are in a place right now where nothing in your life makes sense, trust God anyway. Say to yourself, “This must be a test”.’
As we continue through lent, focus on relationship growth with Christ. Wake up everyday with God and keep Him close to you. See Him in the synchronicity of life. Eliminate the worry from your life by knowing God’s deep and intricate care for you. And finally, view tribulation as a chance to nurture your relationship.