Finding God

On weekend as he was giving the sermon, Father Frank looked over his congregation. The older, whiter heads were nodding in cadence with his words, a couple of middle-aged folks were blank-staring in his direction (one gentleman was sleeping soundly), and the young people that were actually there were staring down into their cell phones, communicating with their friends about the “after church” activities and ignoring Father Frank completely.

Father Frank became discouraged, and after the church service that day, on his way home, he realized that he felt disconnected from God himself, in the same way most of his congregation seemed disconnected. He began to wonder if that might not be the reason that his congregation was disconnected, so Father Frank tried to think of ways he could reconnect with the God he’d lost touch with.

Having counseled many people near death, Father Frank new that those people had great moments of clarity about life and God. He had no wish to hurry death along, but he decided maybe there was something to the near-death connection with God. So Father Frank decided to go skydiving, since freefalling thousands of feet above the earth was probably something akin to a near-death experience (particularly if the parachute didn’t work).

So Father Frank went skydiving, and and he jumped out of the plane and looked for miles in every direction, the wind rushing past his ears, he realized that God was a masterful Creator and marveled at the wonders of creation spread out before him. Father Frank felt that this must be that connection he was seeking. But after he was down on the ground, the wind was stopped and he climbed back into his car to drive home, he still felt disconnected.

Thinking back to how the young people in his church ignored everything completely, Father Frank decided to take a bunch of them to a huge youth music rally that was taking place a couple of hours away. Loud, Christian music bands of all genres, and a couple of days away from the norm…he knew they would be excited, and he hoped he’d catch that excitement too.

Off they went, Father Frank and six young people from his church. They went into the stadium just as a Christian band was starting their praise set. The sound was deafening, and Father Frank could feel the ground vibrating when they hit those bass notes. But how joyously they were praising the Lord! And how the young people, who normally just text-messaged through church, were singing along. Father Frank decided that this earth-shaking worship music was what it was like to cry out to God at full volume surrounded by thousands of believers, and he began to felt reconnected again.

After the concerts, driving back home in the van, as the ringing in his ears faded, so too did his feeling of connection. By the time they got back to the church, Father Frank realized that he really didn’t feel any more connected to God than he had before.

Not one to give up, Father Frank decided maybe he needed a soul revival of his own. His church was going to be hosting an evangelistic series the very next weekend, and one of the biggest evangelists in the denomination was going to come and preach at the meetings. Father Frank decided that would be just the soul jumpstart he needed.

After introducing the evangelist the next weekend, Father Frank say on the front row, ready to be revived. The evangelist was such a powerful, fiery speaker. His words electrified the room and you could feel the Spirit burning in all those in attendance. Father Frank could feel his soul perking up, being refreshed, catching some of the evangelist’s fire.

The next day when he woke up, Father Frank realized that he didn’t feel on fire like he had the night before. As he sat down to study his Bible, the words weren’t leaping off the page and making him feel any differently than he had before. They were just dull words, no fire at all. And Father Frank realized that he was still feeling totally disconnected from God after all.

Not knowing what else to do, Father Frank walked to a pond a little ways into the woods behind his house. He skipped a couple of rocks across its smooth surface, and then say down on a tree limb to watch some ducks swim across it. That’s when Father Frank heard what sounded like someone gently whispering:

“Frank, what are you doing out here?” asked the Lord.

“Well Lord,” replied Father Frank, “As you know I’ve served you for many years now, but when I look out at my congregation and just feel like no one is left who really wants to know You. And I’m starting to feel like I’m disconnected from you, too.”

“Go back the way you came,” said the Lord. “Take another look at your congregation this weekend, because there are several in their number who have a burning desire for a relationship with Me, and they need someone to show them the way.”

So Father Frank went back home, feeling truly refreshed for the first time in awhile. That weekend, as he looked out from the pulpit, he still saw the nodding white heads, the blank stares (the same guy sleeping), and the text messaging. But he also noticed, here and there, bright eyes looking back at him, listening to him, waiting for him to tell them about this God the yearned to know even more.

And finally, looking back into their eyes, Father Frank felt connected to God again.