Looking for God in All the Right Places

Whether we realize it or not, we are drawn to the places where we meet God.  

It’s one of the reasons I like digging in to Bible passages.  I meet God there.  

I meet God in my prayers when I’m open to having a meeting.  In Luke 5:8 we see Peter telling Jesus that he’s not quite ready.  He says, “Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m too much of a sinner to be around you.”  Sometimes I feel like that.  Sometimes I’ve already been stretched enough from having deep and challenging encounters with God and I need to rest.  Sometimes God’s pushing for growth in an area in which I’m not ready to let him work yet, so I push him away.

I meet God in worship services.  I long for worship in which this is true.  Often this has meant worship that makes space for passionate expression, especially through music.  God is always working on teaching me new ways to worship, but sometimes I still miss the old ways.

I meet God in daily devotional books, and I keep re-reading the ones for which this is true, and set aside the ones for which this is not true. 

I meet God in talking with other people about him, especially when we find common ground in our understanding and experience of God’s work in our lives.

I meet God when I help somebody, but for me this one’s tricky and more subtle.  I don't really understand how and when this happens.  Maybe this is another growing area for me.

I meet God when I’m willing to go somewhere he’s pushing me to go.  This can be true in my writing and in my daily living.

It keeps coming up the past few weeks that what Anne LaMott says is true—80% of life is showing up.  Maybe the percentage is even higher.  Showing up is how things happen in all these places where we meet God.

What about you?  Where do you meet God?  Where do you need to work on showing up?