Ever notice this pattern? People do bad stuff to us -> we retreat from life -> God where are you? -> we project our pain onto God!

Life sucks. I’m being bullied. I lost my job, my house, my car, fill in the blank______. He/she divorced me. I was abused physically and sexually. I could go on-and-on listing life’s hurts and pain.

When we feel the pain of life and the hurts of others, we blame God. God how could you let this happen? God, why did you do do this to me? God, where the @#!$$!! are you?

People continue to hurt us, the blame-God-game continues, we retreat and build walls of hate around us thinking that somehow they will protect us. How do we get to the place where we have so much hatred for God?

Iv’e learned that there are two big reasons. We really don’t know God and we choose to ignore that it’s people who do this stuff to us. Not sure if it’s our blindness or ignorance, but we always choose to drop anchor in this place and turn to clenching our fists towards heaven.

I share being in this place in this excerpt from Heartstone:

My mind was always going a mile a minute, always thinking, controlling, manipulating and keeping others and God from coming too close to my heart. I found ways to keep them away from my feelings and would continue to hide how much I was hurting. I simply didn’t trust and didn’t let people know me or allow them to get too close to me because I was afraid. I pushed everyone including God away. I didn’t want to give anyone a chance to hurt me any further than I had already been hurt, so I didn’t let anyone into my heart and my life to truly get to know me. That way, if they rejected me and never truly knew me, I could simply say that I didn’t care. If I let myself care, it would just hurt more. I also believed the lie that if I let God into my heart, He would somehow use it against me or He would not like me. I was protecting myself at all cost even to the point of pushing those who loved me out of my life by rejecting them before they could reject me.

We shut the world out and project the “bad stuff” people do to us on God. We give up on and stop looking for God because we have experienced person-after-person who believes in God, but we can’t believe in them. Lets also not forget the people who use the name of God to cut us down with guilt and shame. Right?

For some reason we convince ourselves that hating God and others is the solution and we lock the doors of our hearts out of fear of further rejection and further hurt. The rub is that we lock out the very one we need to invite in — God.

Did you know one of the main reasons people say they can’t believe in God is because of human suffering? We sit in our homes and watch all the crazy stuff going on in the world, but the reality is that we don’t loose much sleep over the suffering happening in the Middle East right now — right? The real reason why we make this blanket statement is not because of other’s suffering…it’s because of the suffering we’ve gone through. Yup, punch in the face!

Reality check. All the hiding we do is hiding from ourselves — not from God.

When we are going through hardships it is so easy to believe the lie that God has forgotten about us, that He is too busy for us, or that He doesn’t love us. I know we question why God chooses to hide Himself during our time of need, but His promises are true, and He will reveal Himself when the time is right. Remember that when someone is hiding, it means that they are there even though you cannot see them at that moment. God loves you more than you could ever imagine, and He knows what you are experiencing. Jesus did not forget the disciples in the boat that night, but He will always come in His time.

What we often fail to realize…this why Jesus came, because God wants us to know that He is not the source of our suffering. He wants to meet us in our suffering so He can be the source of our healing. Seriously, how many scars and wounds does Jesus need for us to come out of hiding and meet with Him? Were the thorns on His head or the cross not enough for you?

Jesus never said that we would escape difficult times…and we won’t. When a terrorist attack causes suffering and death, those who know God will be involved in that suffering also. But there is a peace and a strength that God’s presence gives. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians shares: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” Reality tells us that we will experience problems in life. However, if we go through them while knowing God, we can react to them with a different perspective and with a strength that is not our own. No problem has the capacity to be insurmountable to God. He is bigger than all the problems that can hit us, and we are not left alone to deal with them.

God is not this malevolent Father who doesn’t want us to find Him. Think of that game of hide-n-seek with your kids and the joy you had when they found you. Please receive this…God has NEVER done anything to hurt you, wound you or broken a promise to you.

God’s Word tells us, “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him.” And, “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them.”

Finding God can be a tough journey only because we let so many things betray us about Him. The truth is that Jesus came to bring the end of religion and to show us that He is the God you loves us. Come out of hiding today and meet Jesus. Jesus is the very name of God looking for us and He is waiting for you because He wants to be found — by you!

If you’re honest with yourself, Waldo and Bigfoot are still the contending champions at hide-n-seek!

Despite the bad stuff, stop being caught up in who your not -> tear the walls down -> be found -> be exposed -> begin to experience what it means to be alive — fully alive!