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What does God feel like?
How do you know when God touches your life? What emotions clue you in? As I read scripture and reflect upon my own experiences, I come up with a whole wide spectrum of emotions when I've felt God's presence . . . from happy clappy time, to raging anger, to the pits of depression. So my question to you is, think of one time when you felt God; what emotion did you associate with God's presence?
I'll go first. The latest example for me came yesterday. We've had a new neighbor move in on our street. Since then, we've had 4 cars vandalized in front of his house, including both of mine. Then construction cones appeared on the street, so people couldn't park their cars there anymore even if they wanted to. Yesterday morning at 5:30, I hear a car spinning out on ice. Since the temperature was set to reach 60, I knew no one should be spinning on any ice unless their driving somewhere they shouldn't be. I look out my front window, and there's my new neighbor trying to drive between the cones, up his front lawn. Shortly after that, a cop car pulls up. The officer checks out the car (w/ no plates btw), and eventually talks with my new neighbor then drives away.
Fastforward to dinner time. I'm returning home with my son. I'm completely worn out. Without exaggeration, I just had the worst 24 hours in my life. There's no words to describe the emotions I've had, but they caused my stomach to feel as if I was going to throw up. Then, as I carry my son up to our porch, I notice my new neighbor driving down the street. And I think to myself, "Hurry up and get inside."
But God had other plans for me at that moment. "Go talk to your neighbor," God says to me.
"You're nuts! Leave me alone," I reply. Then my feet start walking me over to the street as my neighbor is spinning his tires in the mud that used to be his lawn. I watch him give up trying to drive up the muddy hill and resign himself to park on the street. And my feet carry my son and me over to him.
I ask him about the cones. He jumps right into his defense. I rebut with the sound argument of public property. We go back and forth. I grow even more anxious as the exchange heats up. Then in my discomfort I say, "We got off on the wrong foot. I can see your point. Can you also understand my perspective?"
"Yeah, I hear you."
"My name's Kevan. What's yours?"
"Michael."
Michael goes on to tell me that when he rented his house, the snow plow had covered everything, so he just assumed he had a drive way. Then when the snow thawed, to his surprise, nothing. With the vandalism on our street, his temp tags have gotten ripped off twice, the DMV won't issue him another, and now when he parks on the street over night he gets towed. He's out of options. I sympathize.
Then I talk to another neighbor. I tell him the story, and introduce him to Michael. The other neighbor tells Michael he can rent space in his driveway over night for $1 per day so he won't get towed. YEA! Michael's overjoyed. I'm excited. My other neighbor's a bit richer. The conflict is reconciled.
In this one episode, my emotions by which I sensed God's presence went from emptiness, to anxiety, to calmness, to sympathy, to the peace of neighbors reconciled to one another. How 'bout you? You don't need to tell a whole story like this one, just a word will do. What emotion have you felt in God's presence? What does God feel like?
I'll go first. The latest example for me came yesterday. We've had a new neighbor move in on our street. Since then, we've had 4 cars vandalized in front of his house, including both of mine. Then construction cones appeared on the street, so people couldn't park their cars there anymore even if they wanted to. Yesterday morning at 5:30, I hear a car spinning out on ice. Since the temperature was set to reach 60, I knew no one should be spinning on any ice unless their driving somewhere they shouldn't be. I look out my front window, and there's my new neighbor trying to drive between the cones, up his front lawn. Shortly after that, a cop car pulls up. The officer checks out the car (w/ no plates btw), and eventually talks with my new neighbor then drives away.
Fastforward to dinner time. I'm returning home with my son. I'm completely worn out. Without exaggeration, I just had the worst 24 hours in my life. There's no words to describe the emotions I've had, but they caused my stomach to feel as if I was going to throw up. Then, as I carry my son up to our porch, I notice my new neighbor driving down the street. And I think to myself, "Hurry up and get inside."
But God had other plans for me at that moment. "Go talk to your neighbor," God says to me.
"You're nuts! Leave me alone," I reply. Then my feet start walking me over to the street as my neighbor is spinning his tires in the mud that used to be his lawn. I watch him give up trying to drive up the muddy hill and resign himself to park on the street. And my feet carry my son and me over to him.
I ask him about the cones. He jumps right into his defense. I rebut with the sound argument of public property. We go back and forth. I grow even more anxious as the exchange heats up. Then in my discomfort I say, "We got off on the wrong foot. I can see your point. Can you also understand my perspective?"
"Yeah, I hear you."
"My name's Kevan. What's yours?"
"Michael."
Michael goes on to tell me that when he rented his house, the snow plow had covered everything, so he just assumed he had a drive way. Then when the snow thawed, to his surprise, nothing. With the vandalism on our street, his temp tags have gotten ripped off twice, the DMV won't issue him another, and now when he parks on the street over night he gets towed. He's out of options. I sympathize.
Then I talk to another neighbor. I tell him the story, and introduce him to Michael. The other neighbor tells Michael he can rent space in his driveway over night for $1 per day so he won't get towed. YEA! Michael's overjoyed. I'm excited. My other neighbor's a bit richer. The conflict is reconciled.
In this one episode, my emotions by which I sensed God's presence went from emptiness, to anxiety, to calmness, to sympathy, to the peace of neighbors reconciled to one another. How 'bout you? You don't need to tell a whole story like this one, just a word will do. What emotion have you felt in God's presence? What does God feel like?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Caitlin on -
I stumbled across the following by accident, and thought it seemed sort of related. This is an excerpt of a sermon by Sarah Winsett Wiles, a Union Theological Seminary grad. The rest of it can be found at http://day1.org/1199-the_gift_of_grief. I added some emphasis using italics and so forth to communicate the way I understood her words. Anyway, I liked it, and I thought I'd share. Make of it what you will.
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"[...]Who is Rachel? And why is she weeping? Rachel was the wife of Jacob, from way back in the Old Testament. She is the symbolic mother of Israel. In Genesis she died in childbirth. Tradition says that she was buried in Ramah, a town near both Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Many years later, Jeremiah watches as his friends are exiled from their land by the Babylonians. Describing the chaos of thousands of refugees fleeing for their lives, he says that Rachel, the mother of Israel, is weeping. She will not be consoled, for her children are gone. So as Matthew struggles to describe this senseless horror wrought by a new empire, Matthew remembers Rachel. He remembers the grief of a woman who died in childbirth. He remembers the tears of a people deported from their land. He says Rachel still weeps. She weeps for the grief of the world into which Jesus was born, a world in which a man can choose to kill all the babies in a city.[....]
And rather than skip right to the miracles and wedding parties, Matthew gives his readers space to grieve for the darkness in their lives. Rachel's weeping is at the center of this story, standing firm and refusing to be consoled. She bears testament to the grief and suffering of all people. In her weeping we are reminded of those mothers who die in childbirth, those people who are deported from their land and living in exile, and children who are killed senselessly. In her weeping, we hear the sound of our own grief, our world's grief.
So often with grief we want it to end. We want to cover it up and get over it. But Rachel refuses to be comforted. She stands strong in her weeping, and Matthew honors that. Why? Why does Matthew honor that? Isn't this a story about good news? I think Matthew honors Rachel's grief because there is a hope only God can give. Sometimes tragedy is so overwhelming that there are no adequate human answers, and we must wait with Rachel for an answer from God. To wait, refusing false or fleeting comfort, is an act of faith. And in Rachel we see that to weep is to stand humbly and faithfully before God waiting for an answer. For Matthew, Jesus is the only answer to her grief--in Jesus, God casts God's lot with us, promising to abide with us until that day when every tear is wiped away. Salvation and comfort begins with Rachel's grief, with Rachel's honest response to the brokenness of the world. "
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I like the idea that refusing to whitewash our brokenness with insubstantial comfort or cheap words is an act of faith. Maybe this isn't exactly a direct experience of God, but I do think that Holy Spirit can be present within our anger and despair, rather than just being a response to it.
Thoughts?
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Permalink Reply by Abby on -
Over the years I think I've felt God in TONS of ways and emotions. I love and worship him when I am content, and when things go wrong and I lose control-I get frustrated and stressed out in wondering why this is happening to me. Then I am humbled to realize its happening because he loves me and wants to prepare me and make me strong. Then i get angry again only this time at myself because I didn't trust him in the first place! And eventually I am comforted because i know he understands and forgives me! It's this crazy cycle that I hate and love, but regardless of my feelings am bound to! Half the time i feel like a crazy person. Anyways, the latest (and biggest) thing i have been learning lately is the whole trust and faith thing. And its only about God's millionth lesson to me in this subject, who knows maybe someday i will get it, eh!?
Well, while I and those close to me have been going through rough times lately, the important thing is that we realize that God's hand is at the center working hard and fighting for us. And I'm kinda learning that we gotta kinda lift our view and refocus things in a different way. There's two stories. All the stories of the people here on Earth, go there own way, fight for what they believe in, fall and sometimes get up again. And then there is the upper story where God interweaves all of the "lower stories" together to ultimately accomplish his will which is what we really want in the first place! (I just think we don't realize it yet!) So I guess what I'm learning is that my life can be really crappy sometimes and have all hope lost, but when that happens i just gotta refocus and stop being selfish (that's another thing, I'm realizing how selfish i really am!) And i know i know...easier said than done!
So in an answer to your question! "what does God feel like"
~He feels frustrating, stressful, humbling, caring, and trustworthy...and above all loving!
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