Jimbo's Jots

He was sitting across the room and talking about growing up in his family. He kept coming back to the thought that his parents, feeling called to ministry, would leave the kids at home for months at a time. So now, as an adult, he struggles with relationships. Broken marriages, strained sibling relationships, and still trying to connect to his children. As he reflects on his life, he senses a common thread – abandonment. Now compound these feelings with the fact that his parents felt called to ministry, so he associates the feelings of abandonment towards God.

We sense these feelings ourselves. Recently, a tragedy at Michigan State University in which a young man shoots several students. Some survived, three others died from their injuries.

A woman sits in a doctor’s office waiting test results. She finds out that there is cancer. There’s treatment, but how effective it will be can’t be answered.

We’ve all felt it urge in the moments to ask, “Where is God?” It’s easy to ask this. We are not able to see God at work in these times. It’s difficult and we wrestle with the doubt.

Back to the young man, we spent most of our discussion talking about his view of God. In his mind, God was a distant being. God was too far away to care about him. God was away. So we explored the stories where God made his promises and showed up. We looked at the promises of God to be with us and to be near.

What about you? Do you feel God is near? Or do you question God’s presence and feel abandoned? In what circumstances lead you to ask those questions? Let’s wrestle with this together. (Kind of sounds like a Jacob story coming)

Be blessed! Be a blessing to others!