Jehovah-shammah: The Lord is There
- Series: Names of God
- by: Rebekah Crosby 05/26/08
"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 8:38-39
When I was little, I followed my sister around everywhere. Scratch that. Present tense: I follow my sister around everywhere. She is 2 ½ years older than me, and I absolutely adore her. (When my brother came along, I think he also followed her.) Rachel and I shared a room growing up. When she got her own room at the age of 11, I would beg to sleep with her. She couldn't go to the bathroom without me behind her. She couldn't play with her friends alone. I was her constant shadow. Just this weekend, I found myself following behind her as she went about her business as a mom. It seems the shadowing has become mutual because she apologized to me this weekend for following me around. I think she's gotten used to me being a step behind her over the years, and is returning the favor. She inevitably calls for me now if she's in a room that I am not in (sometimes I fall down on the job and let her pick up the slack).
Most people don't enjoy being alone all the time. We look for things to keep us company if there is not a partner readily available. Some of us get pets, some may rely on their Blackberry to give them an outlet, some will stay busy in order to drown their solitude, and then there's always the wonderful world of television. We can concoct a variety of mixtures in order to dodge loneliness.
As a teen I memorized Romans 8:38-39 in Sunday school. We said it every Sunday as our closing. I had very wise teachers who knew this truth would come in handy. It has sustained me.
NOTHING can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Regardless of what we do, where we go, who we become, we are still the recipient of the Father's love. The Lord is well aware of our need for intimacy -- He created us to be that way. God does not follow us around as I did Rachel (and now vice versa); if we are believers He dwells inside of us. His spirit lives in us.
This should be enough for us, but it's not. This is not to minimize our human relationships. The Lord knew that we would seek out corporeal relationships. But as humans we hunger for worldly significance so much that we find it in the world around us. Sometimes we so fill ourselves with the ambrosia of the world that we succeed in quieting the spirit.
There are many ways to quiet the spirit...we can simply ignore its existence, we can silence it with replacement intimacy, we can convince ourselves of the insignificance of its dwelling, we can continuously feed ourselves with outside sources thus muting its presence. The danger of all of these things is that we fall away further and further from the Lord. We can no longer recognize His work around us. We can no longer see His guidance. We have shut Him out and isolated ourselves because of our need for a tangible companion. In our quest for concrete forms of intimacy, we have neglected Jehovah-shammah.
He is there. He is there when you come home to an empty house. He is there when you are distant from your friends. He is there when you are surrounded by people and still feel alone. He is there when you have lost your way.
Don't make Him follow you. Turn your face to Him. Turn off your Ipod, put the phone down, drive in silence and listen intently to the spirit inside of you. He has a way of turning loneliness into fullness. Your only task is to seek His presence.