God is Everywhere

“First, God. God is the subject of life. God is foundational for living. If we don’t have a sense of the primacy of God, we will never get it right, get life right, get our lives right. Not God at the margins; not God as an option; not God on the weekends. God at center and circumference; God first and last; God, God, God.”—Eugene Petersen, “Intro to Genesis (The Message)”

In today’s world, it is certainly getting quite difficult to lead a life that is truly focused on God at it’s center. It seems (more often than not) that we are increasingly looking at God as, well, God at the margins; God as an option; God on the weekends. We lead our lives keeping God in our back pocket “just in case”, or we go all out for God when we are within the walls of the church...but when we are at school, work, brushing our teeth, trying to figure out whether or not you should go to that party, etc., God is nowhere to be found in our lives. That’s because He is not God at center and circumference; God first and last; God, God, God. So, how do we make God the center of our very being? There really is no formula, but a conscious decision still needs to be made. It is very hard, though. We are told our whole lives (by friends, family, TV, movies, etc.) that “it’s silly to make decisions, especially the mundane ones, based on ‘what does God want?’” Is it dumb to try and look through God’s eyes when deciding where to live? What kind of car to drive? Whether or not to give this-or-that amount of money to the church? Whether or not you should be hanging out with those friends? Who to marry? What toothpaste to use? Well, God wants nothing less.

This Christmas season I am asking God to make Himself very real to me. Since I work at a church, it is often "assumed" that I am "connected" to God at all times; I only with that were true. Usually during the Advent season, I am at my worst connection with the Lord due to distraction, busyness, shuffling family schedules, etc. Well, I am grateful that God has been bashing though those walls this year, 2006. Just like Petersen's words to us, God needs to be at the forefront of our every being. And what a better way to celebrate His presence then to really celebrat Jesus, His ultimatepresence among us. God with skin on... "God with us".