When God Doesn’t Show Up

The other day, I came across an interview with Ye (Kanye West) where he talks about everything from the music industry to faith. (It's a fascinating listen, although please be mindful the language is terrible, and I obviously am not condoning his views.) 

Ye said, “I have my issues with Jesus. There's a lot of stuff I went through that I prayed and I ain't see Jesus show up. So I had to put my experience…in my own hands.”

We could jump to criticize Ye–but maybe he's voiced something so many of us have felt at one time or another. Maybe you're feeling it now.

Abraham thought God would show up a little sooner, and when God took his grand old time, Abraham slept with Hagar in order to try to fulfill the promise God gave him (Genesis 16).

The Israelites grew impatient on their way through the wilderness to the Promised Land, grumbling and complaining over and over again and so often trying to take matters into their own hands (e.g. Exodus 32, Numbers 21:4-5).

In the midst of his sorrow, Job felt God's supposed absence. He lamented, “Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him; on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him” (23:8-9). 

The psalmist cried, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (‭‭Psalm‬ ‭13‬:‭1‬).

When Lazarus died, “Martha said to Jesus, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.'” (‭‭John‬ ‭11‬:‭21‬, emphasis mine).

The disciples were pretty darn sure Jesus was the Messiah, but then the “Messiah” was murdered. What are they supposed to do now? Luke 24 says about the two on the road to Emmaus, “And they stopped walking and looked discouraged…'But we were hoping that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel'” (Luke 24:17, 21, CSB).

I prayed for God to heal my mom from cancer years ago—and then on a cold February day I watched a couple men carry her body out the front door in a black bag.

In other words, for so many people before Christ and for us who have come after, it can often feel like we prayed and we ain't see Jesus show up.

Yet the solution to God's supposed absence is not to take matters into our own hands. Of course we have work to do, and we shouldn't be lazy or idle. But did you catch what Job said in the passage I mentioned above? “[O]n the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him.”

When it seems like God isn't working, he is. When it sounds like he's silent, his Word is alive and active. When we're grasping for God's hand, he is walking with us through the valley of the shadow of death. When we don't understand what he's doing or why he's taking so long, he is remaking all of creation. 

So what do we do in the meantime? 

We wait. 

“Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” says ‭‭Psalm‬ ‭27‬:‭14‬. And Psalm 130, “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning” (verses 5-6). God's people waited to enter the Promised Land, they waited for the Messiah for hundreds of years, and we wait for him to make all things new.

So often we (and others throughout Scripture) end up an angsty, discontented mess because of our penchant for giving up on God too soon. But when we give up on God, we miss bearing witness to resurrection. After all, as Peter wrote, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness…” (2 Peter 3:9). God's not slow; we're just impatient.

I don't know what you're facing this week. I don't know if you feel the nearness of Jesus or if you're wondering if God cares enough to show up. But I do know that two thousand years ago, the Son of God came in flesh and blood. I know he showed up in ways no one expected to do what no one else could. 

I know that Christ has died. Christ has risen. And Christ will come again. 

So I don't want to take matters into my own hands. I want to rest in his. Because he has shown up a thousand times before, and he will keep showing up every single day of my life, whether I notice or feel or hear him at all. 

And one day, he will show up in all his glory, and we will see him face to face and wonder why we ever doubted in the first place. 

Thanks be to God.