FINDING GOD IN RANDOM PLACES

Some people believe that God is found only in the pages of the Bible.  Some believe that you can find God in nature.  Some people believe you can find God in a conversation with a friend.  Some people believe you can find God in heaven and rare glimpses of heaven on earth.

Others…  well they believe that if you pay attention, you’ll see the fingerprint of God all over the place… and sometimes, in the most random of places.

Me?  I happen to be the later group.  Don’t get me wrong, I miss God all the time.  But when I have my A game on and my ears and eyes tuned in, I find the DNA of the things of God all over the place.  I see it in the broken hearted yearning for a better life.  I see it in the creativity of an artist.  I see it in the reflection of my kids in a window in the right sunlight.

And while driving up I-5 this week listening to an ABC News Nightline podcast from their Feb. 20, 2012 show… I heard the wisdom of God in an interview with comedian Louis CK.

I’m quite positive that Louis is not going to read this blog and he was also not trying to lead people into connection with God, but God regularly doesn’t seem to mind or care what people intend to do.  He just uses all kinds of people in all kinds of ways to do what God intends. It’s not manipulation, it’s really kind of beautiful. God simply gives glimpses of himself all over the place.  I managed to find the clip on Hulu. You can give it a listen and watch if you want.

Maybe you listened and missed it.  Here’s the stuff… I thought… “Wow. That sounds like God’s fingerprint to me.”

•  “At some point you just don’t care. Well, it’s not that you don’t care.  It’s that you just can’t keep faking it.  You can’t keep being fake.  Some people either harden into a glazed version of your fake self… or you decide I’m going to stop this”- Louis CK on what I would call integrity and authenticity- both characteristics of the imago dei. 
• Then the moment when Louis CK’s career took off was also the moment that he made some unique family decisions… the narrator says”And in a lesson for all of us… The moment he put the kids first, his career exploded.”  Are you kidding me?  That’s not ABC wisdom, that’s Biblical wisdom. I know a ton of youth pastors that should re-play that line about 20 times.    
• Oh… and just listen as he is the quintessential example of a guy who was a nobody for 20 years before he found HUGE success in his 40’s.  How’s that for a God sighting?  Don’t quit.  God is not done with you yet…. and you don’t have to get discovered at 25 by American Idol either. Some people have to remain faithful to the call and persistent and when they do, they find the fruit of their labor in the second half of life.  That’s awesome.