Where is God ?

I’m guessing most of us have asked the question of our topic at least once. It could either be as a result of the pain we are struggling with or that of others. These past few days may have made the call for God sound louder than ever.

The world always finds a way of throwing tragedy in our faces. I picked a line from The Last Days of Forcados High when I read it this week. It said: Whenever people said clichés like the darkest part of the night are just before dawn, they were usually right but could that mean that the brightest days occurred before the darkest nights? In my mind, it does not become dark all so suddenly. It is a gradual process and that’s why we hear phrases like ile tin su.  For us in Nigeria, it didn’t just get so dark immediately, it was gradual. I remember two black Sundays in my lifetime. The Dana Air Crash and the bombing of the Catholic Church at Zuba, Abuja.

On Tuesday night 20/10/2020, that very black night when our protectors became predators. I couldn’t sleep. At first, I just had this headache that refused to go away. Then I watched more videos and the tears that were proving stubborn just gave way.  After that, I visited YouTube and it was like God was pointing me there. The first video I saw was “when it looks like God is doing nothing” by Priscilla Shirer. And I was wowed. The day after I watched a video on how to deal with loss and tragedy and well I became fine.

I have seen pain, heard pain smelt pain, felt pain, and even acted like it was not there at all. And pain more than anything tends to push us in pursuit of a higher being that may hold the solution to our problems. “The Pulley” by George Herbert tells us that man was inflicted pain by God so that man will turn to him. Amidst crises, as human beings, we tend to know what is accountable for our case. It is often said that the idea of a God is not so bad but the idea of a good God who just watches bad things happen sounds ridiculous.

Having been described as Mr. Man Upstairs, the picture most people have is that of a Sovereign being who entertains himself by watching us humans make foolish mistakes and suffer misfortunes either as a result of what we did or what someone else we are connected to did.

At this point, I`ll refer to the lyrics of Oh Lord by NF.

Listen, yeah everybody wants change

Don’t nobody wanna  change though

Don’t nobody wanna pray

Till they got something to pray for

…

It's easy to blame God but harder to fix things

We look in the sky like “why ain`t you listening”

Watching the news in our living rooms on the big screens

And talking `bout “if God`s really real, then where is He?”

You see the same God that you saying might not even exist

Becomes real to us, but only when we dying in bed 

…

Which is funny, everyone will sleep in the pews

Then blame God for our problems like He sleeping on you

We turn our backs on Him, what do you expect Him to do?

It`s hard to answer prayers when nobody`s praying to you

I look around at this world we walk on

It’s a smack in the face, don’t ever tell me there`s no God

***

So back to us. What made me write this, you may ask? Well, I have this roommate called Dolapo. She sometimes says things that do have a profound effect without realizing it. One day, I saw one young boy crying and my heart was breaking. Normally, stuff like that just annoys me. But that day, I was touched. I have never felt so moved by a stranger’s tears. I was almost crying.  While walking away, I was thinking, God? How many children are out there who cry like this every day? Where are you letting this happen to little kids? So I got to the room and asked Dolapo the question of today, where is God and she just looked at me, that her look of “uncle”. She then answered that He is everywhere and he is everything. He is in the laugh of a child and so on. While explaining she said why is God called Emmanuel? God with us? It then dawned on me that God is here. Right inside of me and with me.

I remember one of my favorite hymns while growing up "Once in Royal David`s City". Stanza four to be precise; 

…

Tears and smiles like us He knew

And He feeleth for our sadness,

And He shareth in our gladness.

There you have it. So that answers our question. Doesn’t it?

Here is the link for the message, when you think God is doing nothing;

https://youtu.be/6sjvCx2o76M