When You Realize You've Been Hiding from God

Ray Labatt was 15 years old the night he stood on

a bridge and told God he was finished with him. It was 1984

in a small Wisconsin town called LaMira. Ray hadn't grown up

there. His family landed there almost by accident. After his

parents' divorce, his mom left a reservation in South Dakota to

start over, and while they were passing through LaMira on the

way to somewhere else, they ran out of gas. She looked around,

decided it was as good a place as any, and found them somewhere

to rent. Ray had plenty stacked up inside him before he ever got

to that town. He had a picture in his head of his dad's old

pickup with a sticker on it that read AAA. For most people, that

meant roadside assistance. For Ray, he said it stood for

alcoholic, adulterer, and abuser. His father had been a man of

influence back on the reservation, and an alcoholic

who'd been through nine rehabs. By the time it was over, the

family had come apart at the seams. Then came that night.

That did it. Everything from home and everything in that

store came together at once. Ray walked out, ended up on the

bridge on Church Street, over the railroad tracks, looked up,

and asked the only question he had left. If you're really God,

why did you let this happen? He waited. Nothing came back. So

Ray made his decision. He didn't run off, and he didn't do

anything drastic. He just walked away from God. And he meant it.

For the next 15 years, he stayed angry at God and at about

everybody else. That's a long time to keep your distance. Ray

built a life there. He worked and got by, and God stayed

somebody he'd shut the door on. Then at 30, with no interest in

any of it, Ray met a woman named Lisa. And Lisa did something

that made him furious. Every night, lying next to him, she

prayed for him. We'll come back to what that praying did to him.

But first, welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm

Bart Leger. I've pastored a long time, and this is one of the

things people finally admit in my office.

in months. And then they say they haven't told God anything

that mattered in just as long. Nothing dramatic happened. They

didn't quit. They just started steering around him. And they

expected me to be shocked when they said it. Well, I never am

anymore. A lot of Christians go through this. You're still

praying, and you're still in your seat on Sunday. But God

isn't getting near the part of your life that matters right now.

Maybe there's something you've been doing that you'd rather not

hear from him about. So you keep the conversations kind of

shallow. Maybe you're let down by something he allowed, and

you've been keeping your distance without ever admitting

that's what you're doing. And this is kind of old. It's the

first thing that went wrong between people and God, and it

happened in a garden. Listen to Genesis 3, 8 through 10. When

the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife

heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from

the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the

man, Where are you? He replied, I heard you walking in the

garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked. Adam heard

God coming and got behind a tree. And notice what God asked first.

Where are you? God knew the answer already. The question was

for Adam's sake, a way to get him talking. Here's what I want

you to see. Adam was the one who moved, and God walked into that

garden and called for him anyway. The hiding is ours. The

searching is his. And yet he still asks it. That question is

what surfaces during a worship song you weren't planning to

feel, or when somebody prays for you it gets past your guard. The

way back is to answer him plainly. Here I am, God. And

here's what I've been hiding. You don't have to fix anything

first. Adam answered from behind a tree with nothing to offer but

the truth about where he was. And God took it from there. Now

let me tell you what happened to Ray. It should have driven him

off for good. Instead, it was the crack in the door. Lisa kept

praying, and an older believer started showing up in Ray's life

and stuck by him without pushing. Somewhere in there, Ray went to

a men's conference and heard a speaker talk about his own

wrecked childhood. And something that had been shut in him for 15

years started to give. He came back to God. The kid from the

bridge came home. Then it got strange. Ray sensed God calling

him out of his propane business he had owned and into ministry.

And when he asked where, the answer was the last place on

earth he wanted to go, La Mera. God was sending him back to the

town where he'd lost his faith to plant a church. Ray fought it.

And he reminded the people around him how much damage he'd

done in his years of running. But he went. Today, Ray Labatt

pastors a church he planted at the foot of that same bridge.

And he set up his office so the window looks out on the exact

spot where at 15 he stood and told God he was through. Every

day, he looks at the place he walked away from. From inside

the church, God promised he would be standing right there.

15 years of running and God was calling into that dark the whole

time. Here's today's challenge. Answer the question today. Get

somewhere by yourself and say it to God. Here I am, God. Then,

name the thing. Say the part you've been steering around, the

habit, or the disappointment you've never told him you're

holding. He already knows it. Saying it is how you come out

from behind the tree, so to speak. If it's been a long time,

one sentence is enough to begin. Father, you know where each of

us has been. of us have kept every outward habit going while

steering around you for months and you've seen it the whole

time. Thank you that you come looking and that your first word

to a person in hiding is an invitation. Give us courage to

answer you today to say, here I am and name what you've been

keeping back. Meet us the way you met Adam and the way you met

Ray. In Jesus' name, Amen. If Daily Devotions for Busy Lives

has been an encouragement to you, would you take a minute and

leave a rating and review? It helps more people find these

devotions and it only takes a moment. I'd be so grateful.

Thanks for joining me on Daily Devotions for Busy Lives.

Remember, the hiding is ours and the searching is His and the way

back starts with four words. Here I am, God. Come back next

time for more encouragement to help you live grounded in God's

truth. Until then, God bless and have a great day.