Where is God?

Just last night, I found a YouTube video by Kevin Gerald that sparked me thinking and I am not finished thinking about it yet. But, Kevin said something in that video that resonated with me a bit. One of the most common questions I get as a pastor from people who are hurting or facing grief, brokenness, illness, divorce, etc. is "Where is God?"... Kevin said something that at first made me cringe and later got me thinking further that there is some truth in it. Kevin said... "The truth is God is not everywhere". I don't think he was talking about God being less than omnipresent, but rather that God is not in our stupid actions, or in our lack of faith, or in our doubt, or in our confusion, or in anything that is out of sync with his best for us. Rather, God is ever-present in the wise choices we make and in the loving things we do and in the peaceful and justice filled approaches we take towards people, even towards those we disagree with. God is always there, but not everything that happens in our lives is caused by God. In fact, for me, it really is as simple as the fact that we live in a world that is in general woefully out of sync with God's best intentions for creation. (Something about the fall in the garden of Eden...) and until Christ returns and sets things right, people will deal with pain and brokenness and loneliness and disease and distress and all manner of things. God may not be in the poor choices that we humans make, but he is certainly never far enough away from those moments that we can't fall into his arms and be lifted up by them! I'm still working on t his, but that is where it is for now... More later.