Intentional Epiphanies

Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place-- and I did not know it!" Genesis 28:16

Dear Friends in Christ,

When I went to college, I didn’t encounter that much opposition to God or belief. But after a while I noticed the way so many people lived their lives oblivious to God, not even thinking about God. It was that blindness and silence that started to feel so desolate after a while. Of course, this is an easy habit to get into, especially when our days are spent in a more secular world. Somehow we’ve taught ourselves not to talk about God in daily life, and this has taught us to forget God and even be resistant to thinking about God outside of church.

The season of Epiphany is a season that marks the way God makes himself known to people—especially the way he revealed himself in Jesus. The word epiphany has come to mean a kind of “aha!” moment, when we realize something that we hadn’t noticed before, but that makes a profound difference in our lives. A flash of insight or understanding that reveals what has been true, but somehow hidden from our view, mostly because we weren’t paying attention. How might we reverse the ease of forgetting God, and instead increase the ease of discovering God? How might we intentionally look for these epiphanies in our daily lives?

Even in church we can easily be distracted. But with intentionality of purpose, we can constantly ask ourselves (and indirectly, ask God) “what is God teaching me in this moment? What is God showing me about him, about me, about someone else? What deeper understanding is in front of me, but hidden, and how might I see it more clearly?”

With practice, everything could be an opportunity to encounter God. A conflict with a friend, the content of a school lesson, the illness of a loved one, the beauty of a sunrise, the uncertainty of plans, running into failure despite out best efforts, the surprise of success despite our mistakes, the odd perspective of a stranger, the honesty of children, the disturbing mystery of hard questions, the awkwardness of silence.

God is always present, yet often hidden. How will you persistently seek and find God today?

Yours in Christ,

-Tom