Already here

Personal photo: I snapped the photo in the moment of peace before the service. God’s presence made my worrying dissipate and trickle away just like the rain dripping down the window. He transformed my moment of normal nervousness into special stability!

Pitter patter, pitter patter. The rain slopped over the window pane, blurring the dreariness outside and heightening my awareness of the dryness inside. Last weekend was my baby niece's baptism (Praise God!) and my brother and I could not travel to Missouri to attend the event in person. The next best thing was to FaceTime in so we could answer the questions for the sponsors in real time, and since my parents were physically in the church, they (graciously) offered to hold the phones so we could be part of the moment.

To be honest, I was a little nervous when my phone rang and the screen connected so I could see the service. What if I couldn't hear the pastor or what he was saying? What if I misunderstood what we were supposed to repeat or what he asked us? What if the timing made it awkward and I couldn't participate? I wasn't sure how I was going to be part of the service without being there. I sent a quick prayer to God, asking Him to be with me, as I adjusted the angle of the phone and all of a sudden I was brought back to the rain outside. My ears singled out the sound of the raindrops splattering on the window, the way the water coated everything outside, and in that moment I was reminded that God was already with me.

As obvious as it may seem, it was a sobering moment to feel Him with me, the exact instant that I prayed for Him to be there. It calmed me to realize that He was with me the whole time, already by my side, already holding my hand, already prepared for whatever unknown I may be worried about. I took a deep breath and proceeded with my part in my niece's grand day, all without a hitch.

What is most compelling to me about my rainy day revelation is that it was nothing short of common. While my niece's baptism is entirely special and important, my settings, the feeling of anxiety or nervousness over the unknown, and the sound of rain are all specifically not special or unique in any way. We all stress over the future, over what we cannot prepare for or expect. We all live the majority of our lives in the not-special-ness of everyday. We sit on the edge of our bed and wonder what the day will bring. We run our hands down our face and get ready to face another weekday. We all shuffle around our living space and worry how we will ever make it there, wherever "there" even is. It makes the Holy Spirit's presence more powerful, doesn't it? God was with me anyway, and He is with you and me in all our mundane, in our quiet stressing, in our silent worrying, in our normal everyday unknowns.

The Bible often emphasizes how God is with us, and somehow I still need the reminder (almost constantly) from the Holy Spirit to look for Him in every place. Maybe you could use the reminder too. Romans 8:38-39 really puts it into perspective "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." These verses are a powerful shift in how we view everything we do. The turbulence of uncertainty cannot shake the everlasting foundation of God's love for us. And this love is so close to us that He knows what troubles us, what worries us, what shakes us up before we even ask for Him to be near. He is already near to us. There is no travel time, to distance to close, no ground to cover, for He is already there, already supporting us, already sorting it out.

We know that God is already with us because He gave us the Holy Spirit. This precious gift allows us the intimacy with the Lord that we so desperately need, and we are told of this gift in John 14:16-17: "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you." This passage does several things at once. It identifies Jesus as our mediator, knowing we need a companion closer than flesh. Then it calls the Holy Spirit our Helper, which explains to us how our relationship with Him is designed to be. We can call upon Him at any time and find Him there, eager to guide and assist. We are then told how special this companionship is to us, which immediately makes all those normal moments in our day to day more important. God is in those moments, He is with us in those times of solitude or loneliness, He is accompanying us when we do the most normal of things. The Holy Spirit is not with the world; He is not something outside of us that we have to work to find and keep, but rather He is inside of us, and when we look for Him there, we will see Him everywhere. Finally this passage tells us that we know Him. A helper that we do not trust is not much help to us. No, we know Him, we know that He is our friend, that He is nearer to us than our own blood, that He is stronger than any storm we might weather, that is is trustworthy with all of our thoughts, worries, and desires.

When we stress about the future, about all the what-ifs, about all the ways we fall short of our own goals, we can find peace in reaching out for God. And then finding Him already holding our hand. When we face a new day, fresh with possibilities and unknowns, we can rest our heads on His shoulder and find it mere inches away. We might stumble every once in awhile and then realize that we were caught in His arms before we could hit the ground. In our moments of normality, our human rationalization, our exhaustion, it is reassuring to remember that God is already with us. He is already with us because He is inside of our souls, He is in everything we do and say, and He is all around us. The Lord's love is inseparable from us and when we remember this, we can adjust our prayer from asking Him to be with us, to asking for us to be able to see Him in every step of our journeys. I hope you feel His embrace this weekend, and always! God bless!