When God is “off the grid”

This past week, my family and I joined our extended family for a family reunion. We enjoyed the beautiful lake; we went boating and jet skiing and got to catch up with family members we haven’t seen in a while. But the one thing we didn’t have was simply a cellular or wifi connection. It was fair to say we were “off the grid,” but what should we do when God is “off the grid”?

Now, this topic is a bit personal to me in my life; I had the most fruitful four years of high school. I got to go to several churches and places where I live to share my testimony; I spoke at my class baccalaureate service. I saw God work in various ways over the last four years. Still, just a month into my college career, my house was hit by a major hurricane which took a lot of my sibling’s belongings and essential materials; then came the hurricane of emotions watching my parents fight tooth and nail with insurance adjusters just trying to put our house back in order. When we started to see the light at the end of the tunnel, I started to have panic attacks that kept increasing over time. Now I’m at a point where we had Covid; half my senior year was ruined; months later, we had a hurricane that took a lot of stuff; if that was not enough, now I have anxiety and panic attacks? When I would ask God for help, peace, and comfort, he wasn’t there to do any of those things, it was almost like I was talking to a wall, and I have always felt his presence when I pray to him but not now. That’s when I felt like God was “off the grid.”

When I was at my lowest of lows contemplating the existence of God because for the first time in my life, I became numb to the gospel. Then I was reminded of the time Jesus’s disciples felt like God was “off the grid.” It is what I call silent Saturday, and if you don’t know, what I am referring to is Saturday, the day after Jesus died on the cross, and they placed him in a tomb. What people didn’t realize was what the disciples were doing at this moment in time. The disciples ran and hid from the people in fear that they were next. The disciples were Jesus’s core followers; they did everything together. They were the ones who were right there when he heald the blind, the lame, walked on water, and countless others that aren’t even mentioned in the Bible; they were there up until the very end even Peter vowed he wouldn’t deny Jesus until Jesus said he would. The night before his arrest, he told his disciples he would be back. Still, they never truly understood him, and they didn’t believe him when he died.

God says he promises to give us a future and hope, but he doesn’t say how we will get there, nor does he say we will have a smooth time getting there. You can’t tell in the picture that the path in the picture is not very flat; it’s got up’s, down’s and turns to get down to the swings, and that’s not even counting the boat dock. All Christians have a path to righteousness and freedom in Christ, but we all have to endure the trials that it comes with.

This is the reason why my blog verse is John 16:33 “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” This world is sinful and desperately wicked, but if you believe in God, and he will give you peace because he overcame the world.