4-29-2008


	LINKS DAILY DEVOTIONAL

GOD OF OUR LIFE

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. (Psalm 139:1-2, NIV)

I have heard that some on the PGA Tour say they were "born to play golf."

Imagine this…

Somewhere in the deep mysteries of God, the divine Trinity is holding a brainstorming session deciding destinies for folks. Somehow you overhear the discussion: "School teacher, gardener, bus driver, painter, office manager, computer geek, custodian, mafia lawyer, golfer, sleazy politician…"

You suddenly perk up because you heard the word golfer. Anxiously you stand on your tippy toes to see who Almighty is talking about and it's you! You will be a golfer! Is that your lucky day or what? But for Providence, one place out of line and you would have either been a mafia lawyer or a sleazy politician.

Your day of birth arrives and from the time you are able to stand, your entire life is consumed by golf. You attend special golf schools, study the golf swing, and after years of practice you learn to hit the stupid ball straight. You are a golfer. You were born to golf! Golf is all-consuming; it will not leave you alone.

Don't put my story through rigorous tests of theology, but I think this is what David is talking about in Psalm 139. The psalmist is consumed with the God who is consumed with us.

The searching God is there when we sit, when we rise, when we go out, when we lie down, familiar with our ways, knowing our thoughts before we think them and our words before we speak them. If we travel to the farthest reaches of Milky Way—God! If we go to the deepest ocean—God! On the wings of the wind—God! In the darkness and in the light—God!

Have you noticed the God of our life is all-consumed? It is as though on the day God handed out destinies, He said, "Oh yeah, that one… why don't we just hound and pester her until she dies?"

In response, I want to be consumed with God. Others will be consumed with golf, but I want that one to be consumed with I Am.

I am challenged by this quote from theologian Karl Rahner: "Look at the vast majority of humans, Lord—and excuse me if I presume to pass judgment on them—but do they often think of You? Are You the First Beginning and Last End for them, the One without whom their minds and hearts can find no rest? Don't they manage to get along perfectly well without You? Are You anything more for them than the One who sees to it that the world stays on its hinges, so that they won't have to call on You?...often enough I feel a secret longing to be like them or, at least to be as they seem to be" (Encounter With Silence).

I confess I too have had such a longing. But I have never had the courage to express the thought. What if God took me at my word? All that would be left of me is a huge massive hole where God used to be. Even then I suspect God would be in the hole or perhaps God would actually be the hole. For the God of our life will not leave us to ourselves, God will not leave us alone; we will never be able to shake God.

And for that I am thankful.

Brad Davis

April 29, 2008

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