Where is The Lord?

One of the most astonishing facts about Jeremiah's day and age was that the people of Israel had lost the book of Deuteronomy.  An entire book of the Bible, missing from the collective memory of the people of God!  An entire generation of Israelites grew up never hearing the Shema, perhaps the most important verse of the Old Testament:

         "Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God, The Lord is one.  Love The Lord your God with all

          your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)

Every time I recall this historical fact I find myself asking "How?  How do you lose memory of a sacred text like Deuteronomy?  How does a nation with generations of priests, scribes, and Bible teachers lose track of one of the most precious pieces of scripture?

The answer, according to Jeremiah, is that it didn't happen overnight.  It began at least one generation before Jeremiah's when "your fathers did not ask, 'Where is The Lord?'" (Jer. 2:5). It continued when the priests, the one's charged with maintaining Israel's relationship with God, stopped asking "where is The Lord?" (Jer. 2:8).  Finally, by the time Jeremiah was born, the Israelites, having forgotten the book of Deuteronomy, had "exchanged their glory for worthless idols" (Jer. 2:11).

There is a difficult lesson to be learned in all of this.  If we stop asking "where is The Lord," we just may find ourselves forgetting who we are as a people of God.  If we stop seeking God everyday of our lives, we will slowly fall away from God's path, until (like the people of Israel) we find ourselves astray in a foreign land, not looking anything like the people God has called us to be.

In our lives, it is typical for us to seek God in times of desperation and tragedy.  The tragedy of 9-11-01 is a great example.  Church attendance went through the roof the Sunday after the attacks, as people across the country asked, "Where is God in the midst of this?"

But we are far less inclined to ask "where is God?" in the midst of the ordinary patterns and rhythms of life.  Yet, it is when we seek God everyday that our faith is formed and grounded.  Then we are more prepared to face the unforeseen adversities of the future.  How do you seek God everyday?  How are you feeding your spiritual memory so that you won't forget all that God has done for you?