No Place God has Abandoned

Yesterday, I wrote about the John 3 passage about the spirit: "The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. (verse 8)

Another point that Rachel Held Evans brought up in the chapter I was reading was that we fail to notice God at work. If the wind blows where it chooses - if God works where God will work - then we can't predict that or control that. 

We try. We think God can't possibly be at work in the people we judge to be unGodly. In the denomination we would dismiss. In the homeless or the angry or the addicted. In the children or the youth or the elderly. Those aren't appropriate dwelling places for God, right? (she says, sarcastically).

Evans says, "...I assumed God to be absent when there is not a corner of this world that God has abandoned."

Can't find God on the street? You're not looking.

Can't find God in that person in front of you? You're not looking.

Can't find God on the playground? You're not looking.

Can't find God in the immigrant? You're not looking.

Can't find God in the church? You're not looking.

It's a heavy statement. "There is not a corner of this world that God has abandoned."  

There are places I would abandon. Good thing I'm not God. And that I can't control the wind.