God, in real time..

I met with two students yesterday at Half Fast Subs, a classic college hillside Boulder eatery, worth some good office time. We had decided that we would meet through the rest of the semester with the agenda being, questions. No book study. No worksheets, No project. Just questions.

So I asked, "What questions do you guys have that if we only had four weeks, you would definitely want to talk through?"

They both had the same questions...
"How do I trust God with my life?" "How do I think about Him when I wake up or when I go to bed? What strategies do you have to feel God's presence?" "How do you really love others?"

I noticed all their questions exposed the same issue they were experiencing..., lack of dependence on God. God is relatively not real to them and they feel a small sense of shame that He is not. They both feel God should be more real to them even in each hour of the day.

I shared my observation. What I thought was lacking in their life for God to be real, was... hardship. We do not cry out day and night without understanding our need for God to carry us through hardship. I shared, "Our lack of hardship shines through often in our departure from the battle." When we are in the battle, we feel our dependance on God. John Piper wrote in his book, Let the Nations Be Glad, "Prayer is wartime walkie talkie." When you are in the trenches and need ammo, your cry comes with fury. If prayer does not accompany our day, we must really ask the question, "What battle are we fighting?"

God did not seem so real when David left the battle. The ease by which he found himself doing the unthinkable came in his checking out. When he was no longer leading, he was falling. So I asked my friends, "How have you checked out of the battle?" "What are you allowing in your life that is taking you out?" When I am checked out, personally I have found that it is just a matter of time before I am sobered up to the reality that I live in a battle and cannot afford to not be ready.

This seems to be the other alternative. We can wait to depend on God until hardship comes to us. This alternative would seem like the easier road, but never is the hardship what we would expect or ask for. Whether it was my brother's friend who just a few days ago carried his 2 year old son out of a creek where he had drowned. Or my good friend's mattress business here in the Denver area, where the most unbelievable horrific circumstances would land unexpectedly on his co-employee, Paul's, front desk.

Three days ago, during normal business hours, in the most unexpected time, hardship struck. When the determination of whether Mattress sales met quota for the day, an SUV would enter the business. Driving the wrong way, swerving through traffic at high speeds, the driver hit a curb, went airborne, and landed on a truck killing a family of five. The SUV kept rolling through the front windows of the Mattress Store where it came to a halt at Paul's desk sending him diving from the flying glass and debris.

I wept as I heard the details of the three boys and parents who died at the scene before Paul's eyes. It was then Paul said, "Jesus, come quickly."


Oh may we enter the battle and be ready at the most unexpected hour to know His presence and find that He is real...