Thought for the Day – Staying Sane in a Mad World #2
I can never escape from your Spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I go down to the grave, you are there
If I ride the wings of the morning,
if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
even there your hand will guide me,
and your strength will support me.
I could ask the darkness to hide me
and the light around me to become night—
but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
To you the night shines as bright as day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.
(Psalm 139:7-12)
We live in a ‘secular soaked’ culture where God is excluded and man’s achievements are exalted, where there is freedom to do anything we want, however we want. Man is king and God has been air-brushed out of the picture in the way a painter will spray paint over part of a picture to get rid of something he doesn’t want anymore. It’s a mad world trying to live as though God does not exist. How can we stay sane in such a world?
In spite of what I have just said, people still have a hunger for God and are even looking in the most unusual places. In the books people read (Harry Potter), the films people watch and the experiences people seek. I wonder what people are seeking who go on or watch ‘Love Island’. In all the hoo-ha and flapping around on the Island – are they looking for something higher and deeper, that involves community and love and relationship? Are they, in fact, looking for God? — but just looking in the wrong place?
The thing about God is that we don’t need to look hard to find him. People today may ask where he is but it’s like going into Iceland and saying ‘Where is the frozen food?’. It’s everywhere and God’s stamp on the universe is everywhere. You don’t need to go to a brothel or Mallorca to find God, you can find the living God in Haywards Heath. David in Psalm 139 rejoices that wherever he goes up to the heavens or down to the depths God is there. Darkness or light, God is there. Home or away, God is there.
How comforting to know that God is everywhere but how scary for the unbeliever that they cannot escape his presence even in the depths of Hell.
Father, I pray that the people watching this will appreciate that they live in a God-soaked world. May they feel you near them in the small moments of life as well as the big ones.
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