God at a distance
"In Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." Ephesians 2:13
Tom Hanks made me think the other day. More specifically, it was Tom Hanks playing as Jim Lovell in the movie Apollo 13. In the movie, Jim Lovell, the astronaut who has successfully completed the Apollo 8 mission is now contemplating his next journey, and as he and his wife are out in the backyard, he looks up at the moon. The moon looks like a flat white circle, and we are shown Jim winking and moving his thumb back and forth. Every time the thumb is in line with his open eye, the moon is obscured. Of all the people Jim Lovell would know the enormity of the moon, but with what ease his little thumb succeeds in obscuring the moon! Distance does something to the object. It flattens it, and allows us to easily obscure it. It makes it seem more manageable. The same is often true of the god we worship. God in the distance is a one-dimensional, easily manageable, and easily obscured God. We may, at will, look adoringly at Him, and then very quickly at will obscure Him with “more important” things at hand.There are two assertions in the Bible that never cease to amaze me. One is that God wants to speak. The writer in Hebrews reminds us that “God who in various ways, and various times always spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by His Son.” And the second is that God wants to draw near – “In Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
Many years ago the clarity of this truth first became obvious to me in an unusual circumstance. I was traveling on the London Subway trying to gather in the most sights I could in the day I had between my flights. In a casual conversation with a fellow traveler on the subway, I found out that he was a UN representative traveling East on a “spiritual quest”. He was on sort of a search for God. I told him that it was interesting because I myself believed that I had just come to the end of a “spiritual quest” and was on my way to meet my brother and my mother to tell them about it. In the process of the conversation I revealed to him that what I meant was that through a set of events in the past two years, I had been introduced to the person of Jesus Christ. And at one moment I simply decided to take Jesus at His word, and put my trust in Him. What had happened I could not clearly explain, but all other questions of life seemed to find clarity like they never had before. At that moment he asked me a question that took me by surprise. He asked, “Can you name one distinctive, one thing that has changed in your understanding about God that you did not have before since you decided to trust in Jesus Christ?”
Often, the best questions are questions that we do not have ready answers for, questions which force us to honestly search our own hearts for an answer. This was one such question. In that awkward moment of silence as I searched my own heart, the answer suddenly flashed before me. I told him that the one distinctive thing about God’s nature that I had never realized before trusting in Jesus was that God was personal and He was near.
Ever since, this truth so vividly testified in the Bible that God wants to draw near has been imprinted in my heart, and in times when emotions suggest otherwise, it has been a source of great encouragement. I have come to suspect that often our supposed spiritual quest is simply a way to put our trust in our “pursuit” that never ends. All honest spiritual quests must end in an answer, and it will never be answered by discovery of some secret, but only by trust in a Person. In all our “pursuits” we discover that it is not that God is not speaking, it is that we have shut our ears. If God is obscure it is because we have distanced Him. He has become a flattened, one dimensional, obscured at will and easily manageable God.
The voice of God and the presence of God are not mystical and elusive things that require me to dance and cut myself like the prophets of Baal to comprehend. Nor are they achieved only by those who are willing to run away and do penance on the mountain top, but rather they are the very things that God desires and has made plain. He wants to speak, and He has spoken to us through His Son Jesus Christ. He wants a relationship, so He has drawn an estranged humanity by the sacrifice of His Son on the cross. Where we hear the words of Jesus, we hear the voice of God. Where we follow His footprints, we see the footprints of God, and when we trust in His Son, we are drawn near those who are afar off. I pray that you will trust in God’s provision of His Son today, and allow God to draw near.
Danesh Manik
Tom Hanks made me think the other day. More specifically, it was Tom Hanks playing as Jim Lovell in the movie Apollo 13. In the movie, Jim Lovell, the astronaut who has successfully completed the Apollo 8 mission is now contemplating his next journey, and as he and his wife are out in the backyard, he looks up at the moon. The moon looks like a flat white circle, and we are shown Jim winking and moving his thumb back and forth. Every time the thumb is in line with his open eye, the moon is obscured. Of all the people Jim Lovell would know the enormity of the moon, but with what ease his little thumb succeeds in obscuring the moon! Distance does something to the object. It flattens it, and allows us to easily obscure it. It makes it seem more manageable. The same is often true of the god we worship. God in the distance is a one-dimensional, easily manageable, and easily obscured God. We may, at will, look adoringly at Him, and then very quickly at will obscure Him with “more important” things at hand.There are two assertions in the Bible that never cease to amaze me. One is that God wants to speak. The writer in Hebrews reminds us that “God who in various ways, and various times always spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by His Son.” And the second is that God wants to draw near – “In Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
Many years ago the clarity of this truth first became obvious to me in an unusual circumstance. I was traveling on the London Subway trying to gather in the most sights I could in the day I had between my flights. In a casual conversation with a fellow traveler on the subway, I found out that he was a UN representative traveling East on a “spiritual quest”. He was on sort of a search for God. I told him that it was interesting because I myself believed that I had just come to the end of a “spiritual quest” and was on my way to meet my brother and my mother to tell them about it. In the process of the conversation I revealed to him that what I meant was that through a set of events in the past two years, I had been introduced to the person of Jesus Christ. And at one moment I simply decided to take Jesus at His word, and put my trust in Him. What had happened I could not clearly explain, but all other questions of life seemed to find clarity like they never had before. At that moment he asked me a question that took me by surprise. He asked, “Can you name one distinctive, one thing that has changed in your understanding about God that you did not have before since you decided to trust in Jesus Christ?”
Often, the best questions are questions that we do not have ready answers for, questions which force us to honestly search our own hearts for an answer. This was one such question. In that awkward moment of silence as I searched my own heart, the answer suddenly flashed before me. I told him that the one distinctive thing about God’s nature that I had never realized before trusting in Jesus was that God was personal and He was near.
Ever since, this truth so vividly testified in the Bible that God wants to draw near has been imprinted in my heart, and in times when emotions suggest otherwise, it has been a source of great encouragement. I have come to suspect that often our supposed spiritual quest is simply a way to put our trust in our “pursuit” that never ends. All honest spiritual quests must end in an answer, and it will never be answered by discovery of some secret, but only by trust in a Person. In all our “pursuits” we discover that it is not that God is not speaking, it is that we have shut our ears. If God is obscure it is because we have distanced Him. He has become a flattened, one dimensional, obscured at will and easily manageable God.
The voice of God and the presence of God are not mystical and elusive things that require me to dance and cut myself like the prophets of Baal to comprehend. Nor are they achieved only by those who are willing to run away and do penance on the mountain top, but rather they are the very things that God desires and has made plain. He wants to speak, and He has spoken to us through His Son Jesus Christ. He wants a relationship, so He has drawn an estranged humanity by the sacrifice of His Son on the cross. Where we hear the words of Jesus, we hear the voice of God. Where we follow His footprints, we see the footprints of God, and when we trust in His Son, we are drawn near those who are afar off. I pray that you will trust in God’s provision of His Son today, and allow God to draw near.
Danesh Manik
posted by Danesh Manik | 9:05 AM
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