8.11.24
Tara Jones
Our family has recently gotten into playing the game Mouse Trap. Maybe you’ve heard of it or even played before. Believe it or not, it’s pretty fun. The other night Sky, Doc, and I were playing after we’d put Endee down to bed and Doc landed on a spot that would allow him to take a tunnel and be closer to the bonus cheese (in this game you are a mouse and the object is to collect cheese to win).
No matter how much convincing or encouraging we did he wouldn’t take the tunnel. We told him, “If you want to win, you’ll take the tunnel.” He wouldn’t do it. He wanted to go the long way and risk letting his dad or I beat him – our house is a no mercy home so we’d do it without thinking twice, too – simply because he wanted to.
He stuck to his plan and I figured I’d tell you all this story about the omnipresence of God (first introduction to sermon topic) and how he has plans for our lives long before we were born and he’d want what’s best for us (He’d want us to win by collecting a lot of cheese in our lives) even though we’d perhaps miss an tunnel of opportunity that would make our lives easier, simpler, or smoother.
But instead, I have to tell you, Doc knew what he was doing. He went the long route, played the game the whole way along, ended up winning the bonus cheese as well as the game overall. We had been wrong. He knew his game plan, went about it, and won. (exasperated) Now what is my sermon lesson supposed to be?
In preparing for today I’ve been nervous. I’ve had a lot of questions about well frankly, what omnipresence means, and how omnipresence coincides with free will. Do we have it or is God up there puppeteering us: knowing what we’ll say, what we’ll do, how we’ll do it, where we’ll trip, where we’ll thrive, when we’ll be sad, when we’ll need to learn a lesson, all choreographed in a super complex tapestry intertwined with the lives of others. All of that seems insanely complicated but our God is awesome and if anyone can manage that whole thing and have a plan in it, I believe he can.
Today I hope you’re able to take away two things I want to share.
Understanding what the omnipresence of God is and why it’s good, and
Seeing that we have an opportunity to align ourselves with God’s plan and purpose for our lives with praise and hope
Simply put, omnipresence means, the state of being widespread or constantly encountered; present in all places at all times. For me, in Psalm 139 that happens at the end of verse 18: when I awake, I am still with you. Regardless of how far we go from God, (verse 10) your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. God offers to guide and take care of us. His power and strength and presence can bring us strength when we feel like we aren’t strong or we don’t know where to turn next.
If you’ve ever had a big decision to make and you weren’t sure which way to turn you may have done the classic task of writing out a pros and cons list. It gives us that feeling of ownership and control. Logic in list-making. The option with the longer list outweighs the other and the choice becomes clear. But it isn’t always that simple, is it? What about your gut feeling? That deep knowing.
Recently I’ve come into a new season of life where my friends are starting to lose their parents. It’s a shift from where we’ve been: joking about them, sometimes complaining about them, enjoying them, to suddenly or over time witnessing them leave us. They aren’t supposed to leave us. We should be able to call to ask any question or just to hear them answer on the other end of the phone line. But when I spoke with my dear friend Anjie, who’d lost her dad earlier this year, she said, “Honestly, T, it’s knowing that there’s a greater plan than one I could imagine that’s kept me going through all of this.”
That’s going the long route. That’s choosing not to take the Mouse Trap tunnel. That’s walking the path that’s laid out before you and confidently following our God who is always there, trusting where he leads. It’s all been written: vs 16 16 Your eyes saw me before I was put together. And all the days of my life were written in Your book before any of them came to be.
Finally, from the Bible Project, I learned that the entire book of Psalms is meant to be the prayer book of God’s people who strive to be faithful. It is made up of prayers of lament that tell God about people’s confusion, anger, and all the things wrong with our world. These prayers might come when we are facing hardship, loss, or big decisions.
I hear myself and others praying prayers of lament to God a lot. I’m sure Anjie did and still does. She misses her dad, dang it, and she wishes he was still here. These are fully appropriate prayers to the hurt we see and experience in the world around us.
Psalm’s is also made up of praise poems, like Psalm 139 the scripture we studied today. Prayers of joy and celebration of all the good in our world, a God who made us and loves us.
Lament fully matched with Praise.
Faith fully matched with Hope.
Lord, we thank you for your being everywhere, all the time. You made us, you know us, and you have a plan for us. Stir our hearts. Draw us to you, so we want to trust what you have for us. Encourage us to walk beside you daily as we endlessly hope for the return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus. Amen.
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