Hide and Seek

This past week I wrestled through playing hide and seek with God. It isn't just a game my boys play with me at least once a week. Rather, it's a spiritual game all of humanity has been playing since Adam and Eve first ate the fruit from the tree. Genesis 3:8 "8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. "

In student ministry it's imperative that we build into our philosophy of ministry the doctrine of Harmartiology - the study of sin. Our students need to know that their attempts to hide among the trees when they hear the sound of the LORD through our teaching, small groups, times of prayer and one on one conversations, is dare I say, normal? Conversely, our students need to take heed of C.S. Lewis' words, “Do not let us deceive ourselves. No possible complexity, which we can give to our picture of the universe, can hide us from God. There is no forest, no jungle thick enough to provide cover.”

David summed up well why we should stop playing hide and seek with God with the words he penned in Psalm 139: 7-12, "7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there our hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you."

May our students experience the freedom that God's omnipresence can bring to sinful human condition!