More God Than We Bargained For

When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die." - Exodus 20.18-19

In her book, Spiritual Direction: Beyond the Beginnings, Janet K. Ruffing tells the story of a novice who, uncertain about making her final vows as a nun, was advised by another sister to pray about it. She retired to her cell, where a bright light flooded the room and she felt the overwhelming love of God. She bolted into the hallway. Her friend spied her and asked if she had prayed about her call. "I did," the woman retorted, "and now God is in my room!" 

The children of Israel hustled into the wilderness to meet the Lord at Mount Sinai. When the presence of God manifested in no uncertain terms, they began to wonder if the Egyptians had really been there biggest threat! They immediately elected Moses shop foreman and suggested he handle the negotiations personally; after all, Moses was good at this God-stuff. 

It is good to listen to those who speak for God, unless this strategy becomes a dodge to avoid listening to God for ourselves. C. S. Lewis' demon-mentor Screwtape advises his protege Wormwood to interfere with the "patient's" pray by any means available. He concludes that, "In avoiding this situation - this real nakedness of the soul in prayer - you will be helped by the fact that the humans themselves do not desire it so much as they suppose. There's such a thing as getting more than they bargained for!"

Asking God for things - even big, water-from-a-rock or quail-storm kinds of things - frightens us far less than asking God for, well, God. When the Lord yanked back the veil of the temple, the prophet didn't particularly like what the blinding light revealed about his own spiritual condition (Isa 6.5). Ezekiel saw God and couldn't get a word out edgewise for a week (Ez 3.15). Revelation 6 reveals that the vast majority of folks prefer spelunking to spiritual experience (Rev 6.15-16). And it just may be that a lot of our church business is really church busy-ness carefully crafted to keep God at a respectable distance.

When the novice in the story above explained her plight to her mentor, the older woman asked the obvious question: "Then what are you doing out here?" Perhaps that's something we should ask ourselves from time to time.