Seeing God in the Everyday
Throughout my life I’ve regularly heard people say that it is easy to trust God in the small moments, but it’s the big moments that truly test our faith.
Maybe that’s true for some, but for me, it has always been much more difficult to trust God in the everyday moments than the “big” moments. The everyday moments can seem so insignificant; like they don’t really require faith. The small, normal moments often feel within my capabilities, while those big moments usually require my leaning on God for knowledge, strength, and sanity.
Over the last couple of years I’ve grown more into my personality and gotten to see more of who God created me to be. In that time, I’ve learned that my usual goal is to not be an inconvenience to anyone. That always included God. Why bother Him with small, everyday moments I can handle myself when He has “bigger and better” problems to deal with? I didn’t want to use up my Christian privileges by asking for help on things I didn’t really believe I needed help with. I wanted to save my prayers for when I really needed God to step in.
I realize now that thinking was driven by my limited knowledge of and relationship with God. I believed God had a limited capacity for questions and answers. I believed if I talked to Him too much, He would get sick of hearing my voice. If I asked for His help one too many times, He would say, “That’s enough. You’ve used up all your favors.” I really believed God wasn’t interested in being bothered with my insignificant little life. I think a part of me believed God was limited in how often He could show up. I thought if I asked Him to come help me then someone who needed Him more in that moment would just have to be without Him. I really believed God could only be in one place, with one person, at a time and that He was limited in what He could accomplish while there. Man, tears fall from my eyes as I write this. That limited, jaded, misguided view of God breaks my heart.
Over time, God has taken my hand and led me to knowing Him. He has graciously proven to me that He is so much better, smarter, stronger and more capable than I will ever fathom. He has repeatedly shown that He isn’t just one place at time, He is everywhere, always. (Matthew 28:20)
I didn’t get here overnight, don’t think that you need to as well. It has been a long, long journey of letting God tell me Who He is instead of making my own assumptions about Him.
When tragedy struck my life, when my parents were killed by a drunk driver when I was 16, I no longer had the ability to think about inconveniencing God or distracting Him from another, more important task. All I could think of was survival, and I knew the only way I would survive was if God didn’t leave my side. And He didn’t.
Every day I woke up and God was there. Every day I struggled to get out of bed and God would whisper, “You can do this.” Every time I felt that my heart couldn’t possibly keep beating with the weight of pain it was bearing, God was right there, sometimes speaking comfort and Truth, other times silent - but there. Always there. In times when I didn’t have the ability to ask, God still showed up. In His relentless faithfulness to me when I felt I least deserved, but most needed it, I learned more about God than I had in my entire life as a Christian. God wasn’t inconvenienced or frustrated or overwhelmed by helping me do menial tasks, He was happy to stay by my side as long as I needed, and then forever.
I learned to trust God in the darkest days of my life, and it has taught me trust Him in the bright days too. If He was willing to help me get out of bed, then I believe He is willing to walk with me through the grocery store. That’s what I believe it means to see God in the everyday, to just invite Him to come along wherever, whenever, always. If He is welcome in your life and your day, you will see Him show up in ways you never expected. Because those “big” moments I mentioned? Those aren’t life, those are highlights, moments and events that come and go. But life, life is every day, every moment, and isn’t it beautiful to live constantly with your Creator?
The children of Israel were wandering in the desert, wondering where their next meal would come from, when food literally started falling from the sky. Manna—translated “What is it?” It is God’s provision in the wilderness. What is it? It is trusting God to feed you, not once, not a multitude, you, daily. Every day asking Him to show up and be with you, be what you need, knowing and believing that He is God, so He is capable of showing up and being what someone else needs too. God is so much bigger, better, smarter, capable and more of a completely unsolvable mystery than we ever give Him credit for. Part of the fun and adventure of being a Christian is knowing a God Who can’t be explained and learning to let Him lead the story. Every day, waking up and asking God to surprise you. Every day, watching some form of manna fall from the sky. Every day, asking God, What is it? Every day, seeing Him show up and do something different than the day before. Every day, seeing God in the everyday.
