Towers of Babel

As I sat in my new room, looking at my new surroundings, thinking about my new friends and all the “newness” that was happening in my life, I began to feel exhausted. I have done a lot of new things in my life and, while I love new seasons and new things, it can become rather tiring after awhile. I began to question my reasoning for being here at CGA. What was I doing here? Had I made the right decision and was God in this decision? I was also struggling with spending time with the Lord. My times with Him often felt dry and I was feeling distant because I didn’t want to put in the effort to seek Him. I was in the desert yet again and I was thirsty.

It was in this moment that something crazy happened. I believe that God wants us to get to a place where we are no longer satisfied with what we may label as “acceptable” faith in order to get us to a place where He can take us to the “greater things” that we will do. Hosea speaks of a time when we are taken to deserts and all the things that have taken us from our first Love. It is in this place that He speaks tenderly to us. It is in the desert that God woos us back to Himself.

As I sat on my bed and contemplated all that was happening in my heart, I began to feel empty and drawn to the Lord. I wanted so badly to hear Him, to feel Him, and yet I could not seem to find Him. So I picked up my Bible and, not knowing where to start, began to just flip through the pages. As I flipped the pages, I suddenly began to smell something. That’s right, you read that correctly. I was smelling a fragrance I had never smelled before. Confused, I began searching for the source of the scent. I smelled the pages in my Bible. I looked for a lit candle I might have missed. I looked for perfume or something, anything, that might give off such a magnifecent fragrance but found nothing. I looked back at my Bible and began to realized that the smell got stronger everytime I flipped the pages in Ephesians. I got to Ephesians chapter 3 and the fragrance in the room became overpowering. Then I read it. Ephesians 3:12 says “Because of Christ and our faith in Him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence.” It hit me all at once. I was being wooed into the very presence of the living God and I could literally SMELL Him! He was allowing me to see that even when He is quiet and I don’t hear His voice, He is close enough to smell His fragrance.

I come before His presence with much more boldness these days. I have realized that God is closer to me than anyone on this earth ever could be and He is true to His Word. Even when He is quiet, He is near. He really won’t ever leave me. There is solace in knowing that the God of the universe has chosen to be near us. He is Immanuel, which is not translated “God is over there waiting for you to get your act together and do all the right stuff.” His name, Immanuel, is translated “God With Us.” He is right here. He has not gone anywhere.

If you feel that He is far off, expose yourself before Him. Tell Him how you are feeling, what you are thinking. He is not hiding from you. Chances are, He is wooing your heart toward Himself!

“His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him- though He is not far from any one of us.” Acts 17:27

We try so hard to do all the “right” things, to pray the “right” prayers, to find our own ways to God. We build our towers of Babel, thinking that we will find God if we can do all the right things. But, when we are willing to abandon our towers and realize that God is not far from us, in fact, He is right in front of us, we will find Him. When we are open and honest with the One who is most worthy of our trust, He is there, ready to reveal Himself to us.