Guess Who Moved?

I am often not particularly fond of church signs.  I find that most of them do not help the Kingdom.  They usually end up with some cheesy message, something incredibly insider focused, or something downright outsider offensive.  I suppose they're meant with the right heart, but "Eternity...Smoking or Non-Smoking?" is not going to really help people not connected to Jesus feel welcome in your church.  I think they should probably just say, "All Welcome!" or something like that.  That's supposed to be the purpose of the sign, to shout to the world that everyone is welcome there, not to announce "Sunday School Committee Meeting this Thursday at 7:00". 

However, I have had a sign or two that stuck with me and didn't annoy me.  One, in particular, sticks in my brain because it spoke to me and still speaks to me.  It said:

"If God seems far away, guess who moved?"

The Bible says that there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother (God's spirit), that God is present when we sit and when we rise and was there when we were created in our mother's womb (Psalm 139).  God desires to be near us, to live in us, to draw us to Himself.  If He seems distant and aloof, it isn't because of Him.  I think we moved.  I belive this happens for one of two reasons. 

1. A spiritual earthquake.  Something happens in our life that is of seismic proportions.  It changes our geography with God.  We mess up, big time.  Somebody else messes up, big time.  There is some unforeseen change in our life.  We are disappointed, broken-hearted, hurt, or damaged.  We do something that leaves us feeling ashamed or guilty.  Whether we are the cause or someone or something else is, something happens that leaves us in a different place with God, and all of a sudden, he seems far away.  We know what the cause was.  We just don't know how to get back to where we want to be.  Or, we're scared of the implications of what getting back will look like. 
2. Continental drift.  We wake up one day and God just seems like He's on the other side of the world.  We can't pinpoint it.  We don't know exactly what happened...it just happened.  We skipped church one Sunday.  Then two.  All of a sudden, we haven't been in five months...or five years.  We used to set aside a time to pray, then we got busy, or tired, or bored.  We had a Bible reading plan, but we just stopped.  Now our Bible is dusty sitting on our night stand.  We were in a small group, but then we got a new job, or joined a new team, or had the baby, or had to start getting up so early.  It just happened.  And we don't want to be here.  We want to be with God.  But He seems like He's a million miles away and we have no idea how to get back after falling so far.

The remedy for both is simply one step at a time.  In fact, I think we find that when we simply start walking God's direction again, we realize that He's not quite as far away as we thought He was.  That seismic event didn't create the gap that we thought it did.  That continental drift didn't take us as far across the ocean as we had imagine.  That's because we serve a God who is slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who is ready to pour out on us grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace.  Lots and lots of grace.  You may have moved, but you're not as far away as you think.  He's not as far away as you think.  Pick up that Bible.  Go worship.  Bow your head and pray.  You'll find Him nearby, about a step away.