God Who Sometimes Hides

If I go forward, [God] is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive him; on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him; I turn to the right, but I cannot see him. -Job 23:8-9

I've certainly been there. Sometimes, it is as if God is nowhere. Prayers bounce of the ceiling and clink hollowly to the floor. Worship is dry and communion is nothing more than a tasteless cracker and over-sweet wine. In small group, the question of where I saw God most clearly is a rote answer involving my grandchildren... more of a happy moment than a truly God moment.

Sometimes these dry spiritual experiences last only a day or so. But sometimes they go on for months. On those long ones, sometimes my good spiritual habits get left behind. After all, who wants to talk to emptiness? I'm not sure why these seasons of dryness come or why they can hang around so long. I've been told that God hasn't moved so it must be me. Maybe. But there have been those times when I really examine myself and can't find what I had done differently. I assure myself that I probably just didn't look in the right place.

The ending of the dry season usually appears as mysteriously as it started. It's not usually a VDC weekend or birth of a grandchild that does it. Maybe someone says something that really resonates in my soul or I pick up the bible and read something that makes me go deeper or a prayer finally feels like it's landing on listening ears. Then everything makes sense again.

The one thing I've noticed is that each time I get past a dry spell, my spirituality has moved to a different level and I experience God differently than I ever have before. Maybe those dry spells are supposed to be there.

God Who Sometimes Hides,

Open our hearts to experience you in new ways, always growing in our understanding of who you are. Amen