MONDAY MEDITATION: GODISNOWHERE (October 18)

Give thanks in every situation because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. – 1 Thessalonians 5:18

What do you see in the title of this meditation?

Admittedly, what I see is:

God Is Nowhere

Maybe that’s because I see too many news feeds.

Right now people are tagging different crises as Armageddons. Climate-ageddon. Violence-ageddon. Economic-ageddon. Racism-ageddon. Washington-ageddon. Pandemic-ageddon.

Care to add any more ‘geddons?

The problems we face, and the energy/courage it takes to confront them, are immense. Maybe that’s why, on a beautiful fall morning when I’m writing this, I’m typing on a keyboard instead of watching chickadees, cardinals, and red-breasted woodpeckers frolicking around the birdfeeder.

I need to focus on another way to read this title:

God Is Now Here

That truth lies in the title, but it was more difficult for me to see.

Maybe if I was more like Paul, that would have been the first thing I would have seen. Thanking instead of despairing. Seeing the beauty in the large world instead of the pessimism on a small screen.

Why not take a day when you periodically stop and ask yourself, “What or who am I grateful for, right now?” At the end of the day review those stops you made and what gave you pause in gratitude. Could there be a better way to end the day, and to start a new one, than to make your own version of Jim Reeve’s old hymn, “We Thank Thee”?

The old adage of stopping and smelling the roses isn’t new, of course. Yet the fact that we keep having to remind ourselves to do that shows how complaining is our default, when observing and thanking should be.

Yes, Paul would have seen, “God Is Now Here.”

Maybe we can, too.