What does God do all day? [1]

It is more than three months since I last posted something here, but that is not because my commitment has waned. Yes, I have been very busy on an internet project that may be significant, but the basic reason for this long interval is that I have been struggling to answer a question.

The question is that posted in the title at the top of this page. The question came into my mind in exactly these words, and the question sounds almost irreverent. We might ask a question in this form about somebody whose role we are unable to understand. To ask it about God is consciously anthropomorphic: God does not measure time in days as we do. I have tried to dismiss the question, but have been unable to do so. And so, knowing that I do not know the answer, I am sharing the question and my questioning with you here. Perhaps trying to explain the question to myself and any readers will help us both find our way through to some sort of answer.

We know the answer will be at best imperfect and incomplete. We are dealing with the God who says "My ways are not your ways, and My thoughts are not your thoughts." The great heroes and heroines of faith (some are listed in the eleventh chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews) had met with God, and had followed His instructions. But we are told remarkably little about how they had received those instructions. Read this chapter, and then follow up by looking at the accounts in the Old Testament, asking yourself all the time: how did they know what God wanted them to do? You may not get very far forward, but it will became very apparent that one of the things God does is give instructions to men and women of faith. "Go here ... " "Do this ..." " Say that ..."

In other words, God does involve Himself in the affairs of mankind. God does want certain things to happen, and others not to happen. But God delegates the influencing of events to others, to men and women, young and old, who will hear His voice (however) and act in obedience to that voice.

This morning, twelve days after the tragic events of September 11th, all over the world people will be praying to God to do all sorts of things. Even without the focus of these recent events, we have all prayed - have we not? - for God to feed the poor, heal the sick, give deliverance to the oppressed, and bring peace to our world. How deeply have we thought about how we expect God to fulfil these petitions we make?

I will return to this question again (I don't know how often and in what depth) but I wanted simply to share the question with you, dear reader, and invite you to join with me in asking: what does God do all day?