God has not left me alone. The trouble is, I am not always aware of it. God’s presence often feels more like an idea than an experience; more theory than reality.
As a point of doctrine, I take his eternal and pervasive presence as the central existential reality of the universe. And if there is something out of alignment with that, it is much less likely to be a shortcoming on his part than on mine.
But as a point of doctrine, that does nothing for me. Left there, it has not yet become “real” to me in any meaningful way.
God has not left me alone, yet I often feel alone.
The cure for loneliness is shared pleasure—in our relationship with the divine as much as in human relationships. In doing what pleases God, I in turn experience his pleasure—his joy, his laughter, his happiness, his satisfaction of having a desire fulfilled. In doing what pleases God, I am enveloped into his pleasure.
Loving and trusting obedience to God doesn’t bring me closer to God. It only tunes me in to how close he has actually been all along.
