What Do You Do When God Feel Like He's a Million Miles Away

Do you ever feel like God is a million miles away? Maybe you wonder if God has gone on an extended vacation. He has no fixed time line as to when He is coming home. Perhaps you wonder if God has permanently blocked your prayers. Maybe if you just did more for the church, you would move you up on the prayer chain—because surely God will love you more if you just did more for Him.

The other night my daughter came into our room and sat up on our bed with her book. We didn't talk about much, really—she had her book and I had mine. It was that she simply wanted to be with me—near me. Occasionally she would mention some funny thing about her book or remember something she forgot to tell me about her day. But the most important thing to her at the moment was having her momma close at hand.

I wonder if I didn't take those one on one moments with my daughter--how that would make her feel? What if I simply called her when I needed something—asked her to show up for family get togethers so I could impress my family members. What if I stayed really busy doing stuff for her but never had time to just sit with her on the bed or hang out. I realized that often, I approach my relationship with God with that kind of attitude and then I wonder why God feels so far away from me.

Whether I look at my relationship with my daughter or my relationship God, neither will be healthy if I don't spend one on one time. It doesn't matter how much I do to impress them, how many gifts I give them, or how much I learn about them. None of these by themselves will make the relationship stronger...these things definitely help when the relationship is strong but won't do anything for the relationship if I don't take the time to sit and be still with them. It's not about waiting for them to move closer to me—it's about me taking the initiative to go to them and give the most valuable thing I have—myself and my time.