If God is so Close, Why Don't I See Him?

If God is so close, why don't I see Him, or feel His presence?  This is an obvious question that can trip people up.  If God cares about me so much, why don't I feel like He's there for me?

The answer to this question is, I think, that God is so close to us that we don't see Him.  How can this be?  The truth is that many of us don't see what is closest.  We look past our parents, our siblings, and even our friends toward things that could be ours, if only we could reach them.  We look for the perfect moment at a party, or for wealth, or for recognition, or for popular friends, without being happy with what we already have.

The closer we get to the people around us, the closer we get to ourselves, and the closer we get to God. It's easy to strive after some goal and ignore the people around us.  When we do this, we are ignoring God as well.  How can we feel close to Someone we ignore?  How can we see Someone we don't even look for?  If we look out at a crowd, we'll rarely notice a person we're not looking for.  God is a member of that crowd, and we can only find Him if we know what He looks like.

What does God look like?  He looks like a lonely friend, like a forgotten parent, like a suffering brother.  God is in the people we forget and ignore.  He's in the people we try to impress, who really just want friendship.  He's in you and me, who suffer and need help.

So how can we see God?  By starting with the people who are already close to us, and working to make our relationships with them accepting and happy.  Share things you love with them, and perhaps they'll share things with you.  When we try to love the people around us, God is with us, and He overcomes barriers.  We need to let go of the bitterness, let go of the anger, and let God into the relationship.

Happiness is Nearby

Where do we look?  Jesus says that the eye is the lamp of the body, and if the eye is sound, then the soul is sound and there is light within.  So where do our eyes go?  Where do we cast our souls?  How far away is that thing we feel we need?  Where are we sure that we would be happy?

The funny thing is that in general our happiness finds us.  Happiness is all around us, and the way to become happy is by accepting and choosing what is already there.  Our parents, for example, have been given to us.  So have our brothers and sisters, and even our friends.  Have we responded by accepting and choosing them?  By being happy that we have them in our lives?

One of the keys to happiness is acceptance.  Here is a decision to be happy: accept that I am here, with these parents, these siblings, these friends, this work, this social life, this illness, this character flaw.  We have to decide to be happy with the things we have in order to be happy.

The irony is that we often go looking way out there for happiness, when it was right in front of us all along.  We are already literally close to people (e.g. a roommate or a parent), so why not also try to be close to them with friendship?  Being close to the people around you is a key to happiness.

People who are close don’t always want to be friends.  But a saint said that where you can’t find love, if you put love there, you’ll find love.  Find something both of you enjoy, and you’ll quickly come to enjoy that person’s presence.  If you have nothing in common, pray for the person, and something will come up.  Maybe share a thought or two with him that you wouldn’t normally be open about.

There are, of course, exceptions, like bad influences and marriage boundaries, but these and exceptions like them aside, look to what is nearby, accept it, choose it, and happiness will follow.

There is a throne reserved at the bottom of our hearts for the thing or person that we worship.  This is what we choose to be closest to us.  Regardless of what we choose, the one for whom the throne is made is Jesus.  He is already closer to us than we are to ourselves, it is up to us to accept Him, choose Him, and live with the peace and happiness that he gives to the hearts that are His Own.