Haunted by God

One night in High School several friends and I decided visit an old road called “Spooky Hollow.” Boys rode in the first car and girls in the second. The boys decided to jump on a great opportunity. We raced ahead, hid the car, and crouched beside the road to jump out and scare the girls.

As I squatted down, I speared my right palm on the pointy end of an unseen stick.

This was both bad and good. It was bad because I had a half-inch hole in my hand. It was good because now we really could scare the girls (and I could get sympathy). The scare worked, but then I needed about seven stitches to fix my hand.

“What are you haunted by?” 

My devotions recently made me think of “Spooky Hollow” and the idea of haunting. “Spooky Hollow” was a winding forested road that just looked “spooky.” You were, “haunted” by a feeling you didn’t know what was out there. I usually think of “haunt” in reference to a ghost story.

However, when you think about it, the word simply means a lingering, unavoidable feeling, a repeated visitation.

This can be negative in the sense of a ghost or bad experience. This can also be positive in the sense of a memory or idea that “haunts” you.

Psalm 25:12 reads

“Who, then, are those who fear the Lord?…”

What if my life was haunted by God? 

The psalmist repeatedly talks of “fearing” God. Isn’t that similar to being haunted by Him. What if every moment I had a lingering, unavoidable understanding of His presence? Oswald Chambers writes in My Utmost for His Highest:

“The aiding consciousness of the life is to be God, not thinking about him. The whole of our life inside and out is to be absolutely haunted by the presence of God.”

Far too often my life is haunted by thoughts of raising my daughters, working on “church stuff” or playing “Clash of Clans.” God actually is present every moment, I just don’t think about it. He is right here as I write this post. He knows and influences where I click, how I spend my time and how I waste it.

If I think too much about God’s presence, it scares me because God is holy and I’m not. If I think too little about God’s presence it scares me because I find myself more afraid of life.

Conclusion

My goal for tomorrow is to be consciously haunted by the presence of God. I will accept my failures in His sight because I know he is the good shepherd of Psalm 23. I will trust Him to provide because Jesus said to do that in His sermon (Matthew 5-7). I will trust Him to give me what I need for “life and godliness” (1 Peter 2:13).