When I feel forsaken

“I will never leave you or forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)

Why would God make this declaration, this outrageous promise? He distinctly said the words in both the Old and New testaments. The idea was, and is, important to Him. (Deuteronomy 30:6 and Hebrews 13:5)

We have finally got to what I consider the worst part of the year. This year, 2021, in the place where I live, LA 34.419208 LO -86.784023, the “dog days of summer” have finally come. I’m not complaining, at least not much, because this is the last week of July. Most often, these sultry, sweat popping begin in June. There have been molten misery days along the way, but only one or two at a time. Now, each day is a carbon copy of the day before and a forecast of tomorrow. And I do not like them at all. It is easy to wonder if cooler and drier days will ever return in my lifetime. However, I know the meteorological truth about these days, which quietens my despair. (And, I am so glad God created freon and ceiling fans!)

The only difference between the dog days of summer and winter’s cold, soggy days is blood-sucking insects. Between the two climate extremes, the presence of ticks, chiggers, and mosquitoes put the dog days over the edge on the misery scale.

Those lazy hazy days of perspiration saturation and relief longing are close to a common condition of our spiritual lives. God seems so very far away, so mythical, that we wonder about His existence. If not that bad, we wonder if He is listening to our pleas for healing, direction, or direct intervention in our calamities.

Where is He? Why is He silent? Does He not care?

I have discovered over the years (a lot of years) that God is indeed listening and He is speaking. The problem is that I’m looking west, and he is coming from the east. God does not adjust His intervention into our spiritual dog days. Instead, he expects us to adapt our dog days to face his intervention.

Am I really listening to God, or am I just repeating what He has said in the past or what I have heard others cleverly say He said?

Am I currently leaning on the sound teachings of God Followers? Or do I use what they say as a place to lean in to hear what God has to say to me?

Sometimes it is the drudgery of everyday life that is the seedbed of the demoralizing awareness that God has forsaken me.

It is too often that we seek God to be “real” to us, to deliver us from our physical or emotional bondage by some miraculous act of grace. We often cry out, “When you deliver me, I will glorify you!” We desire a great story to tell how God proved Himself to us. But what does God want from your current crisis? Do you know Him well enough to trust Him even when He feels distant and inattentive?

God never promised to always heal our difficulties, but He promises never to leave us or forsake us. I may feel abandoned, but that is only a feeling; it’s not the truth. It’s not His promise.

When we feel abandoned, we are being put on notice that something must change in our relationship with God. God’s presence with us is not based on how we feel but on what we know. Know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32, CSV)

Photo – I took it, but do not know what it is, or where i took it. Still, I like it.