Reality Check

I have many favorite quotes from the Campus Crusade for Christ staff conference I was at this weekend.  One that keeps popping back into my head however is "being so connected to your present reality that you miss the reality of the Lord's presence."

We talked about Sarah in Genesis 17 and how she didn't believe that God would allow her to give birth to a son at such an old age even though that is exactly what God had said he would do.  Perhaps she was focused on her past experiences, disappointments.   Whatever the case, her husband did not waiver in unbelief.

As I looked today at the story of Naomi in Ruth 1 (and then again later in the book of Ruth), I saw something there as well that reminded me of bringing our present reality into the presence of our Lord.  Naomi had indeed much to be sorrowful about.  She lost her husband and only two sons.  Naomi, though had become bitter - she asked people to no longer call her Naomi, but to call her by a name that meant bitterness, Mara.  She was missing out on the current presence of God by being so caught up in her present realities.  Am I making sense?

What is it that you are facing?  What is your current reality?  Mine is that we are packing, getting ready for a summer of traveling and moving around a lot before finally leaving everything that we know and everything that is comfortable.  I have no idea exactly what my next 6-12 plus months will look like.  But will God's presence be more real to me than any of my present realities or realities to come?  What about you?

Bring your present reality into the presence of God.  Reality doesn't then change, perspective does.  Thanks Steve Sellers.