Some say they only feel like God is absent, that it only seems like he's an absentee landlord. These acknowledge this as a dishonorable lie. They resist it.
Yet others speak with the same venom of the serpent in the movie mentioned previously. They even resent those who experience God's presence daily, even in adversity. They shun the ones who maintain communion, the very ones who could help them fight the deception. Those who feel far from God can be helped by those who feel near. Indeed, if I draw near to God, and God draws near to me, then those who draw near to me indeed draw near to God.
Of course the ones experiencing divine loneliness need nor want a mediator among men and women. They don't want a go-between. They want to know God directly, for and by themselves. This is good. Until then, they accept indirect communion, for whatever reason.
But those who revile God as distant need to be reminded of the truth:
He is not far from any of us.
His son came from heaven to be one of us' dying and rising from the dead for us.
His Spirit came to live inside of us.
This is far from absentee.
Some shun the "personal experiences" of those who are close to God, making it clear that "their experience is not every one's experience."
Forget the experiences of the so called few, if they must be forgotten. God made us all and is near us all, according to Paul. Jesus died for all, for every man and woman. This should never be forgotten or taken for granted. Creation and salvation are not the actions of an absentee landlord.
God is near to all, felt or unfelt. Of course those who want to feel his presence want a good thing, and will receive what they want. They should settle for nothing less. But while they wait, they should not dishonor the one who never left them nor forsook them. They should honor him, the invisible one; the one closer to them then the breath in their nostrils. He breathes into their nostrils the breath of life. He is their very life. There is nothing closer to the living then their life and breath itself.
Where is God? He is in every breath you and I take. For it is written, "The Spirit of the Almighty has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life."
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