"Where are You?"

Where are you? If I wanted, I could go to my Google Maps app on my IPad and it would tell me that I am currently located at 18 Sur 2109 Bella Visat, Puebla, Mexico. If I wanted to be more specific I could say that I am sitting at the table in my bedroom. This seems like such an easy question to answer, but I have begun to look a little deeper into the question. This past week I came across this story:

     In 1798, the Chassidic leader, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, was imprisoned for spreading religious faith (and thus subversion) amongst the Jewish population. While he sat in prison awaiting trial, his warden, conscious of being in the presence of a holy man, asked him a question that had long been troubling him. He said: "We read in the book of Genesis that when Adam and Eve sinned, they hid themselves among the trees of the Garden of Eden, and God called out, 'Where are you?' What I want to know is this. If God knows and sees everything, surely He knew where they were. Why did He need to ask, 'Where are you?'"

     The Rabbi replied: The words of the Bible were not meant for their time alone but for all time. So it is with the question God asked Adam and Eve. It was not addressed to them alone but to each of us in every generation. We squander our days and nights on artificial, temporary objectives; we become consumed with self-preservation and gratification, and we believe that we can hide from the consequences. But always, after we have lost our course, we hear the voice of God in our heart asking: Where are you? What have you done with your life? I have given you a certain amount of years; how are you using them?

     Now when I ask myself the question, it takes on a whole different connotation. I am challenged to first ask, where am I with God? I shudder when I think of the first night that Adam and Eve were outside of the Garden. The noises of the land that once were so familiar and friendly, were now foreign and terrifying. Everything that they had become acquainted with was now hauntingly bleak and in dismay. Never again could they have their communal sanctuary with the Creator. I am sure that night they asked each other a different type of question, "Where is He?"

     Our assurance of knowing whom we are in God is a lot more sure than where we are with God. You can know who you are in God because of His unwavering promises. It does not depend on anything that you do. It is not possible to change who you are to God. The ball is in your court to know where you are with God. This is our journey and challenge that we face each and every day of our lives, but it is a vital question to ask ourselves if we want to have a relationship with God.

     We need not ask the question, "Where is He?" The promise that we have is that when we call upon the name of Jesus, we are saved; however, this promise is about salvation, not whether or not God knows where we are. He is beside those who have accepted his son and is relentlessly perusing those whom are far away or deny His existence. He is near to and at work in the hearts of all mankind. The ultimate affirmation creation can have is that He knows where we are. In return, we are left with the larger question, "Where am I?"