Distracted? Ooooo, look at the bird!

Have you ever felt like God is miles out there and out of reach? I’ve heard it said often, “I feel like God is so far away”. I’ve learned what causes at least me to feel that way…I get too distracted.

Let’s face it, there will always be distractions. Ourselves, impressions we make, or don’t make, our appearance, accomplishments, possessions and failures just to name a few. Then others and their appearance, accomplishments, possessions and failures can also be a distraction. I’ve been diverted by all of these and more. I get frustrated when I realize how distracted I’ve truly become. So I’ll find myself feeling required to lock myself in a room to pray and regain my ground.

I sit and begin the “effort”. Before long I am quickly distracted, usually by a child or a ringing phone. I feel a combination of irritation and relief as I tend to the matter. Then I find my way back and begin again. I say, “Lord, I’m back”, and then it hits me like a ton of bricks… “I feel like God is so far away?!” I laugh as I repeat myself once again…”I’M back!” I pick myself up off the floor after being pelted by this revelation that God isn’t far away, He hasn’t gone anywhere! It’s me who’s been doing the running, entertaining all my distractions and even sometimes hiding.

Can an Omni-present God ever leave? How far away can He really be? Could it possibly be me, a mere mortal who loves and accepts upon condition, who is very self focused by nature, is it me who is so far away? Yet God is so patient to wait for me. Psalm 46:10 says “Be still and know that I am God”. Often times it takes a crisis for me to be still. How sad that God isn’t the only tenant of my heart. How sad that I allow the temporal to override the Eternal. And yet He stays, does not move, does not change. He patiently waits for me to jump my biggest obstacle, not distractions, but myself.