Is God Too Easy To Ignore?
How do you wish God to find you?
Considering the kind of faithlessness prevalent in the world today, we may come to assume that God is just too easy to ignore.
Why doesn’t He make Himself felt more often? Why do atheists scream out loud and not find a clue about Him?
Why do so many sinners not get reprimanded for disobeying His commandments?
Sometimes we may wish we can still see Him as a person who can speak to us and demand our attention. Someone whose face we can easily read whether He is disappointed, pleased or already angry with us.
Wouldn’t it be convenient if He were a person we could talk to and tell us straight what we’re doing wrong? He could also tell us just how much He loves us with a face we can’t refuse. We’d see from His eyes how He loves us and how He couldn’t bear to watch us ruin our lives.
Even if we try to ignore Him, we’d see Him following us around. He’d call us or send us His letters. He’d talk to our friends and those who can help us see just how much He wants us to be happy and live holy lives.
Yes, we may think that kind of presence would be helpful for us. But would it?
Wouldn’t it be the same with people who want to win our hearts but couldn’t because our hearts are already set on someone else? Wouldn’t seeing Him following us and constantly demanding our attention be something that would turn us away more?
God speaks to us. He pursues us in love. But we often go about our busy lives and we may not notice Him at all.
God speaks to us through the people He sends to guide us and love us. He speaks to us through Bible verses filled with wisdom and hope. He speaks to us through our conscience, telling us whether we’re doing something good or something wrong.
God uses many things to call our attention. He created the beauty of nature to inspire us and to make our minds curious about the One who made everything so beautiful. He is there whenever we gaze at a lovely sunset, when we walk under a starlit night, or when we’re amazed at the falling snow.
Sadly, we attribute every good thing we receive and see to something else. Just because we can explain something scientifically, we think something can’t possibly come from God. But why is that? Didn’t we ever think that science itself comes from the God of knowledge and truth?
In what way would we prefer God to speak so that we’d no longer ignore Him? He can speak to us through devastating calamities and we may still refuse to hear.
Perhaps that is why God sometimes allows us moments of pain and vulnerability, times of stillness and loneliness when it seems as though the whole world has abandoned us. When we’re finally alone with our broken hearts, maybe we’d hear that small voice whispering to us. The voice we’ve ignored for far too long.
“Behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire passed; but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a still small voice. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle, went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. Behold, a voice came to him, and said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’”-1 Kings 19:11–13, WEBBE
“Sometimes the only way the good Lord can get into some hearts is to break them.” — Fulton Sheen
“‘Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.’ Although man can forget God or reject him, He never ceases to call every man to seek him, so as to find life and happiness.” — CCC 30
Jocelyn Soriano is the author of the book “To Love an Invisible God”.
Is it really possible to love a God we cannot even see? Can we really love Him as we love another Person? A Person who can listen to us and respond to us? A Person who can know us far more intimately than any human being ever can. Read more about “To Love an Invisible God — click here.
