Continuing with Elijah and his cave experience, we tend to think that if God is involved in something, His dramatic power will be on display. God would be in the strong wind or earthquake or fire, not in the sound of a low whisper. And this can be a stumbling block for experiencing God at work. If God cares about what we are doing at work, then we would expect to experience His power helping us to accomplish what He cares about. We are looking for Him to show up in power, but we do not have nearly enough experiences of that to have a strong sense of His presence. Dramatic experiences of God are too rare, too much on the margins of our work lives, to provide daily communion with the God who is there. We have to commune with God who is present in subtle ways in our work.

Is God present and involved in circumstances without displaying His power? Paul’s ship in the storm in Acts 27 comes to mind. God is involved and sends an angel to Paul to tell him that he will appear before Caesar and all the people on the ship with him will be saved as well. But there is very little of God’s power on display in this rescue. He does not calm the threatening storm, instead the ship is storm tossed for 14 days before crashing on a reef while all the passengers swim or float to shore on the debris. This is not how I would expect God to be involved in the work of transporting Paul to appear before Caesar. It sure wouldn’t feel like God was working with us if I was one of the sailors on the ship. If God cared about our voyage and getting Paul to Caesar, then we would not be suffering through a 14 day storm and end up ship wrecked on an island.

An example of viewing God as being present in dramatic power is how we sometimes think about miraculous healings in the third world. We might observe that there appear to be more healing miracles in these settings than in countries like the US. With a desire to experience more of God, we wonder if believers in these settings are doing something right in order to have God “show up”in this way. The perception is that God is more present in these settings because there is more of His dramatic power displayed in miraculous healings. And there is the perception that God is able to accomplish more of what He desires with these miracles. But is this true?

There are far more premature deaths and health problems in these third world settings. Even with more healing miracles, these people are much more worse off in terms of overall health than in the US. If God desires health and healing in the world, modern medicine has a greater positive impact than healing miracles on overall health and healing. Is God present in modern medicine’s effectiveness? Or is God only present in healing miracles?

While attracted to miraculous healings, most Christians are able to embrace modern medicine as a Godly provision. There is an understanding that God is working subtly with medical providers to provide healing and relief. We would prefer dramatic healing miracles that are not explained by modern medicine, but we do not rely on them as if that is the only way that God is involved in caring for our health. In fact, we rely on (and experience much more often) God working subtly through the skill and insight of trained medical professionals.

God could have appeared to Elijah in a strong wind or earthquake or fire, but He chose to appear in the the sound of a low whisper. God can work through dramatic power, but He often chooses to work through much subtler means in this age, working through the much weaker efforts of people. So, especially in our work, let’s not marginalize God to the miraculous and dramatic and let’s look for His presence in the mundane as well.

I would love to connect with you about these posts if they have stirred any thoughts or questions. Take a minute, shoot me an email at bo@leavenedlives.org, and let’s see where that takes us.