(12) Where's God?

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for Where’s God?, originally shared on May 7, 2020. It was the twelfth video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   We’re at a point now in the Coronavirus pandemic where it seems like the virus may have mutated into another form. We are also hearing a bewildering array of promising treatments involving new drugs and old, genetic manipulation, clinical trials, and over 100 vaccine possibilities, some of which are said to be coming December, or maybe next year. Governments at every level are laying plans for re-openings, and you and I are trying to make the best decisions for when to resume regular human commerce, no matter what the powers that be say is allowed.

    We’re told that there may be food shortages in the short term as workers in processing plants become ill. Wendy’s hamburger chain used to run a very popular (today we would call it viral) TV commercial in which three customers examine a competitor’s burger and ask, “Where’s the beef?” This week we found out that they are removing menu items made with beef, in some locations. And, Costco has, in some areas, begun rationing meat, temporarily, to three items to avoid panic buying. Three items at Costco would be 25 pounds of hamburger, 20 pounds of ribs, and a 37 pounds of chicken. So, come on.

    We’re also at a time when people question the goodness of God and God’s power to heal everybody. Actually, every time is a time like that.

    Do you remember the Where’s Waldo books for young people that came out in the late 80’s? They were cartoon-like drawings of crowds in various places and the game was to try to find Waldo, a guy in jeans and red and white striped beanie and shirt. I saw a meme awhile back that showed a Where’s Waldo? type drawing, only with only five people in a large field, one of whom was Waldo. It was captioned Where’s Waldo? Social Distancing Edition.

    I thought of this when I read an article by John Kasich (KAY-sick) published in USA Today. That name might sound familiar to you. John Kasich is the former governor of Ohio who ran for President in 2016. I put a link to the article in the more information section.

    He wrote about how he had come to struggle with his faith at the sudden death of his parents and what he had learned in the thirty years since. Now, in light of the global suffering and fear unleashed by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, and the comments of his friends, he was struggling again. And he writes how, in that struggle, he was led to realize that his faith had been there all along, and he experienced renewal.

    Isn’t that the way with God? We get busy, we have responsibilities, the world looks different and there’s no place for God there. We go about our business. We’re good people. God no longer plays the role he did, but then nothing bad happens to us. Our lives go on as they were, pretty much the same.

    And then, something bad happens, and we question whether we ever did believe in God, or we return to the Lord, Our God and remember what had been real and is again.

    Sally and I have seen this again and again as pastors in local churches. I came to think that suffering is like an amplifier in many people. It amplifies the state of our faith, either active or inactive. Has that ever happened to you, or to someone you know?

    And, when the clutter goes away, we see that God is right there, like Waldo in a field with four other people. Sometimes when we return, we find that, though our experience of God changes, God never changes.

 *Psalm 139:7-12

    The psalmist reminds us that God does not let us go. Even when we are unfaithful, when we let go of our relationship with God, God remains faithful. The inside door of the food pantry in the church I served in Compton had a sign that read, “If you feel far from God, guess who moved?” We don’t have to guess.    

    John Kasich went to see a priest friend to talk about his fears and anxiety during these times. The priest thought for a moment and said, “It’s normal for us to be afraid, John. We’re born to live, not to die, so our focus should be on living, not dying.”

      “We’re born to live, not to die.” We were created for a living relationship with the living God. We messed up that relationship. We continue to mess it up. But, God keeps seeking us. He entered into human experience for us, suffered for us, and died for us.

    Why do we get more “religious” when things are going bad than when they are good? Because when things are going well, we don’t think we need God. That’s why things fall apart. Not because God is punishing us like naughty children, but because we remove ourselves from God.

    We get busy, we forget God. But this is a time, if we are not on the front lines, we can step back, reconsider our lives, and reconnect with God. That’s when we find that God hasn’t left us. God has been there all the time.

    Find a mature Christian who you admire. Find your trusted friend. Talk with them. Ask questions. Learn from their experience over time, good times and bad.

    And then have a long talk with God, or a short one. It doesn’t matter. Open your heart. You will find that God is there, and has been there all along.

    We have been given a living relationship with the living God, one that assures us that God will never leave us, that we are still loved, and saved by God’s unearned love. That we belong to a corporate reality, the Body of Christ, the whole Christian Church on earth, all of us together seeking to love God and serve our neighbor.

   That is what sustains and will sustain us through this pandemic. Knowing whose we are, sustained by the nourishment that comes though Jesus Christ, producing in us the fruit of the Holy Spirit.