Estimated reading time: 5 minutes:-)
When you love someone, you just want to be with them. You don’t really care what you do. You just want to be with them.
I’ve told this to a few cherished people throughout the years: “I don’t care what we do, I just want to hang out with you.”
For those special people, it doesn’t matter what you do. It’s simply a joy being in their presence.
And I’ve learned that’s how it is with God.
A few weeks ago, during small group, a friend asked, “why are we called human beings?”
And I think there’s something profound in that. I feel like people misunderstand the relationship God wants to have with them. They believe they meet God in church, or they touch Him when they worship, or they glimpse Him when they serve, or they can only hear Him through reading the Bible.
And these things are all so good! Church and worship and serving and reading the Word are essential parts of our relationship with God.
BUT ~ in believing those are the only ways to grace God, at least for me, I slip into the idea that I need to do things to reach Him or connect with Him. And that’s simply not true.
Why are we called human beings? Because God wants us to be with Him. To simply be with Him. Because He looks at you with such love and says, “I don’t really care what we do, I just want to be with you.”
Doesn’t that give you chills?
We’re not called Human Doers. We’re called human beings.
God is so madly in love with you, He just wants to be with you. He just wants your heart. He doesn’t put up walls and make you climb over them to reach Him. He’s right here.
The times I’ve been “closest” to God in my life are the times I chose to just be with Him. And okay, maybe that’s just my personality and it’s different for every person. Because I’ve heard people say they’re closest to Him during worship, or other things. Totally good!! I’m just talking about what God’s shown me.
But I’ve felt closest to Him when I choose to just be with Him. And just being with Him often turns into worship, or reading my bible, or going out and serving in some way. But all of that started with me just sitting with Him, talking with Him.
Ultimately, I think God wants us to say that back to Him: “I don’t care what we do today, I just want to be with you.”
Because if we fasten our time with God to service, the idea that service bolsters our egos and reputations rises, and then we’re not serving to be with God any longer or to help others. We’re serving for our own glory. I speak from experience.
Or in worship, if we dedicate our time with God to only worship, it becomes a therapy that makes us feel better afterwards, and then we’re not worshipping for God’s glory, we’re worshipping for our own. Again, I speak from experience.
But when we start our “time with God” by saying, “I don’t care what we do today, I just want to be with you,” oh BOY God is not afraid to do stuff.
And this is something God is teaching me right now, so I’m no master at this. I hope you can read this as a testimony of someone who’s in the thick of it herself, walking alongside you, rather than someone who’s already been through it and is talking down on you.
I’m learning to say, “I don’t care what we do today, I just want to be with you.”
1 John 4:19 says “we love because He first loved us.” And that gets me. Because all these years, God has been loving me, romancing me, pursuing me. And I’m just beginning to see all the ways He’s so faithfully loved me through the years, which makes me want to love Him.
Because God says, “I just want to be with you,” I want to say it back. And I’m learning how.
Last Sunday, I took my brother Owen to youth group. And because I’m too old to go to youth group myself, I usually just hang out for a few hours while I wait. Sometimes I’ll work on the next Youtube video, sometimes I’ll write, sometimes I’ll work on social media.
But that day, I just wanted to be with God. Genuinely, I didn’t want to do anything else. So I sat outside with my computer (so it looked like I was working;) and talked with God.
A funny thing happened. We chatted for a while, and then the church cat came up and started walking all over me. It was pretty funny. I mean, this cat could have been a dog. It nestled into my lap, ran its face along my arm, jumped on top of my computer…
In a way, I think it was God chasing away that alone feeling that sometimes assaults us during prayer. I think one of the devil’s sharpest weapons is the feeling of aloneness even though God is right beside us. And that cat ~ well, it was impossible to feel alone.
After that, I still had a lot of time left. So I asked God, “I don’t really care what we do, I just want to be with you. What should we do next?”
And I felt like God wanted me to go into the sanctuary as soon as all the youth left and pray over the church. So I did.
I walked into the main sanctuary, slinking through the halls like pink panther trying to dodge high schoolers, and finally made it right in front of the stage unnoticed. I knelt there, and I just sat with God, and lifted up the church. And then other people came into my mind, so I prayed for them too. And then a worship song came to mind, so I listened to it. And then I started singing along to that worship song. And then more worship songs lined up, so I sang along to those, too.
Do you see what I mean? God turned a chunk of time that had no direction to it, into a worship session and a time to pray for hurting people and a time to just sit at His feet an be with Him! Crazy!
And it’s nothing I did, or planned beforehand, or thought would be the right, godly thing to do. All I said was, “I don’t really care what we do, I just want to be with you.” Everything else was God.
Sit at His feet today. Be with Him. Gosh, it’s so healing to just be with Him and talk with Him. Talk with Him about everything! About your struggles, but also your joys. What you ate for breakfast. Why you’re thankful. Something that makes you laugh.
Be with Him today.
This is that first song that popped up last Sunday when I was sitting there like a weirdo in church. AND GET THIS: it talks about sitting at His feet. Good grief, God’s a crazy guy. Anyway, listen to it and sit at His feet today! He just wants your heart!
