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God Gets Personal
By Faith Marsalli - January 20, 2008
Isaiah 49:1-7

Our God has a face, a name, and a presence in the world. Nowhere is this better expressed than in the person of Christ. In the human face of Jesus we see the Living God. Have you seen God lately? How has God showed up in your life this past week?
This is the intention of First Words each Sunday. Describe your personal experience of God. What can you say?

I've gotten in the habit of looking for God everywhere…in the faces of the people working at the drive through coffee shops, in the grocery store, even in gas station garages where my car broke down last Saturday in Salem. Amazing God-sighting there.

I certainly don't see God as a detached, cool, indistinct concept or idea. My God is an active, personal being who appears to me all over the place, in all kinds of settings, through all kinds of circumstances, and through all kinds of people. And, as is confirmed in the stories of scripture, God is a personal God who wants to love us and speak to us and to enlist us to do his work in the world.

Do you know what work God is calling you to do? I am not just talking about your pay the bills job. I mean are you and I living out of our passion, a passion that God has placed within us all? Unlived passion will inevitably create restlessness in us because we are not living as God intended for us to live.

For my friend, John Messenburg, his real work, is to encourage a small circle of people that God has put on his heart and whom he prays for daily. His paying the bills job is janitorial work. For Karen Oberst her real work is to communicate deep truth through her writing. As a newly published author, her pay the bills job takes place at the county library.
For Martin Luther King it was to speak out against racial inequality.

Some of us have been able to integrate our passion with our jobs, but it doesn't always work that way. It may be that the volunteer work that you do outside of your profession is what really excites you.

God is a personal God and a God who is connected to everything we are and everything that we do and God wants us to be active participants in his work in this community and all around the world. I see so many in this meeting partnering with God here in Klamath Falls and even a few who have followed God to faraway places to do his work.

Listen to Isaiah, an ancient Jewish prophet, as he gives witness to a personal God who calls him to be light in the world.
"Listen, far-flung islands, pay attention, faraway people!
God put me to work from the day I was born.
The moment I entered the world he named me.
He gave me speech that would cut and penetrate.
He kept his hand on me to protect me.
He made me his straight arrow and hid me in his quiver.
He said to me, 'You're my dear servant, Israel, through whom I'll shine.'

But I said, 'I've worked for nothing.
I have nothing to show for a life of hard work.'
Nevertheless, I'll let him pronounce his verdict.'

'And now,' God says, this God who took me in hand from the moment of birth to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back home to him, to set a reunion for Israel-
What an honor for me in God's eyes!
That God should be my strength!

He says, 'But that's not a big enough job for my servant-just to recover the tribes of Israel.
I'm setting you up as a light for the nations so that my salvation becomes global!'
God, Redeemer of Israel, The Holy of Israel, says to the despised one, kicked around by the nations, slave labor to the ruling class: 'Kings will see, get to their feet-the princes, too-and then fall on their faces in homage because of God, who faithfully kept his word, the Holy of Israel, who has chosen you.' "

This passage speaks to me of a God who sees, speaks, acts, moves, and intrudes in our lives. Isaiah recounts how, even before he was born, God knew him and had plans for him. Even in utero, God had a purpose for Isaiah's life.
As I have meditated on this passage in Isaiah, it too has become my story. I am dear to God and God wants to shine his light through me. Just think of it. Each of us are chosen and empowered by God in our own uniqueness to do God's work in the world.

Do we believe that this is true? Do we trust that God has a purpose for us even if we can't fully see it or understand it at the present moment?

Last Monday I was on my way to the frame shop to pick up a picture that I was having framed as a gift. I was, once again behind a car with a provocative bumper sticker, which said, "I have no idea where I am going." It struck me as such a humble and honest statement. The humorous thing was that as I was pondering this thought I made a wrong turn. This happened to give me some added time to see the other bumper sticker on this car, that read, "Not all who wander are lost." I just cracked up. People must think that I am nuts. I laugh in my car; I sing in my car, I cry in my car. I eventually turned around and made my way back to the frame shop.

What a great metaphor for our lives. God will eventually get us where we need to go even if we aren't quite sure it is where we are going, and even if we make a few wrong turns along the way. We just need to keep our eyes on our Guide and we will end up where we need to be.

I drove Lydia back to Willamette University last Saturday. We had to leave before the crack of dawn to get her to a leadership retreat that began at noon that day. Wouldn't you know it, just as we pulled onto Highway 97, it started to snow, I mean really snow, blowing snow, so much so, that I could barely see the road in front of me. I crept along, slowly, trusting we would make our way to our destination if I just moved forward inch by inch, slow mile by slow mile. Weather began to clear by the time we made it over the Willamette pass and we finally made it to Salem.

You know, sometimes we can't see exactly where we are headed, but we just need to keep moving forward. If we stay close to God, our Guide, he will get us where we need to go.

As I am move through some major transitions in my life, I am seeing God show up all over the place, teaching me new things, opening and enlarging my heart, leading me by giving me just enough light to take the next step. I have hope for what God is doing in me and through me. But I also am confident that life is not just about me and my personal happiness, but rather the deep joy that comes in serving others and being involved in God's work.

I sense grace written all over my life even though my life feels especially hard right now. I am in the hands of a personal God who has great plans for me and I want to be aligned with that plan, to be awake to where God wants me to be, and what he wants me to be doing.

I receive a weekly email publication called Heron Dance. This past week the editor wrote these words and it made me think of my own journey. Maybe you will resonate with it, too. The editor writes…
"I've been thinking back this morning over the roughly fourteen years since I started the publication and how I've frequently meandered away from that original vision. It is kind of like trying to walk a straight line by looking at your feet rather than a point off in the distance. If you walk in the snow, then you can look back and see how much you wavered. On the positive side, I've never lost my faith in the importance of that distant point, and I've known from a feeling deep down inside when I was walking toward it with faith and confidence. That feeling is one of centeredness, of balance, of inner warmth and strength.
If I take five deep, slow breaths, and ask myself whether or not I'm on the right track, I get a crystal clear answer back. A feeling of distress, anger, unease or sadness tells me that I'm on the wrong track. At times like this I ask myself: "What is scaring me that I don't want to confront? What question am I avoiding? What question am I keeping from myself because I am afraid of what the answer will direct me towards? Is there a change I'm trying to avoid?"

These are challenging questions, but ones that a personal God does not leave us alone to grapple with and try to answer. In these next few moments and in the days ahead, let's reflect on where we are, and where we sense God might be leading us.

If we are restless, let's ask God what our restless spirit is trying to tell us.
If we are fairly content and comfortable, let's ask God if we have become complacent.
If you happen to be in a suffering space, you may want to ask God, "Why me?" I have asked this question a few times over the last couple of months. The answer that finally came to me was, "Why not me?" What makes me exempt from suffering? Suffering is part of this earthly trek.

Maybe you are in a peaceful space, you feel like you have found your God-given groove, but you wonder if you need to be challenging yourself to think in new directions.
For instance, maybe it is time for you to think about that short-term mission trip to Africa or India, so that you can give your area of expertise to needy folks in a third world country.

Let's get personal with God and pray together as we enter into the silence and ponder what we have heard in meeting for worship this morning.

Lord, we want to follow you and entrust you with our lives. Help us to grow in faith. Give us insight and direction in our lives. Touch us where we need to be comforted and challenge us where we need to change. In your loving name, we pray, Amen.