God Will Show Up

Last year, I ran into a situation where I had to move out of my living situation fairly quickly. Apartments were about to get gobbled up in the August push, and I started thinking about moving in July. For a guy without a job, going back and forth to Ecuador for almost 10 years, it was going to be tough going finding an apartment.

Then, I posted something on Facebook, and a friend responded. A relative had an opening in the very same house I was living in 4 years earlier – a lot cheaper, but … underground. I went and looked at it, and immediately knew it was for me. But I still had to work out income and some other practicalities, like, would internet be installed? I was a little stressed! Well, I was helping out with a mission appeal in a parish just as I was moving out, and after Mass, a family approached me to chat. Their young son had something to share. As a budding singing artist, he had a CD in his hand that he wanted to give me. I thanked him for it, and looked at the title: Help Is on the Way.

After Jesus was baptized, he was led into the desert for 40 days. He was led, meaning God brought him into the desert. Well, after 40 days, he’s still there. Now is the moment of truth. what’s going to happen next? That’s where he gets tempted. The Son knows the Father, and knows that fundamental truth: the One who brought him into the desert, would bring him out. God will show up.

In a story from last Sunday’s readings, God tells Abram to do something, and Abram goes and does exactly what God wants. He gets the animals just like God wanted and cut them up and laid them out. Then, he waited. And waited. Day turned into night. You might think, Couldn’t God have asked me to do this when He was ready to show up? You might wonder what is going on. Or maybe, if God is going to show up at all. But Abram waited. And waited. And the way God showed up turned out to be very deep and profound: at night in a fire. Abram knew to wait for God to come. He knows that God will show up.

In a recent Gospel, a few apostles are on a mountain with Jesus when they see him talking to Moses and Elijah. It says they are talking about Jesus’ upcoming exodus from Jerusalem. Then a cloud comes where the apostles can’t see anything and they hear God’s voice tell that this is His beloved Son: listen to him! When the cloud disappears, there’s Jesus standing alone. What’s happening? Well, it helps to know that the word exodus means “the way out”. Jesus knows the way out through death – listen to him.

God has shown up.

If you are stuck underground, with a mess on your hands, in a desert of life in loneliness or poverty, anywhere it seems that chaos or failure or bad luck or betrayal or violence or whatever misery surrounds you, whether you think it’s your fault or not, don’t give up. It may take time, but there is a plan.

Somehow, some way, the One that brought you into that situation, will get you out.

Wait for God.

He will show up.

Surely, I wait for the LORD; who bends down to me and hears my cry,

Draws me up from the pit of destruction, out of the muddy clay,

Sets my feet upon rock, steadies my steps,

And puts a new song in my mouth, a hymn to our God. (Ps 40:2-4)