God is here.

So here I am, stuck in the Atlanta airport, annoyed that I was bumped from my 1pm to PA and now have to take the 10pm flight , but happy that they gave me two free tickets to anywhere (read - LA to see Kyle again) and a free dinner.

In the intervening hours, I have been here lugging a few bags from place to place, working on getting stuff ready for a small wedding that I'm doing tomorrow, and thinking about this conference that I just finished. Again, it was super awesome.

My friends and I who were at the conference began to reflect on a rather existential question in the midst of our drives between the auditorium and the hotel: is there a place where God isn't present?

Let me state that again: Is there ever a time or place where God isn't present?

I think that a kneejerk "yes" or "no" may be easy to justify, but I'm not sure that it's that easy to process. Many worship services in mainline churches start off with what is called an "Invocation" where we are calling on the Holy Spirit (the spirit of God) to be present in this place of worship. I've never been comfortable with that, as it implies that prior to the invocation, God's spirit was not present. It also implies that we have the power to call God into a place.

While I recognize a human ability to call upon the power of God, calling on and commanding God seems to be a bit off.

But back to the question: is there ever a time where God is not present?

Here's what I'm thinking (though I'm still wrestling with this a lot) - God is always present, but sometimes when it feels like God is absent, that can be just as bad as if he was.

Let me break that up a bit. God tells us over and over throughout the Bible that he's got a plan for us, and he's never going to leave us or forsake us. I think that is true. God loves us.

However, the Bible also is filled with stories of people who are constantly running and hiding from God (some might say that that is essentially the main role of people in the bulk of the Bible). It seems that it is in the midst of that running away, or that turning away, getting distracted and pulled away by other things that we shut ourselves off from being able to feel God's presence in our lives, to feel God loving us. It is then that we feel alone, and then when we are the most vulnerable.

God loves us so much that he lets us turn away.

That's essentially the story of the Prodigal Son. The father loves the son enough to let him leave. He never stops loving him, though.

Hmm.

I think God is here. Here in the Atlanta airport, waiting with me for this plane.

I think God is there with you also. Sitting at your computer, doing plainly normal, boring things. And God is loving you while you do it.

That's what I think.

Okay, time to lug my bags over and wait in line with God.