God is in the circles between us

​Yesterday, a friend and I talked about circles. The circles between you and me. The circles between you and them.

I said life is a story. It always has been. Sometimes, though, I can get to thinking that story is me and my circle, or that story is you and your circle, but in reality, the real story is what happens in the circle BETWEEN you and me. The circle where our stories intersect.

Life gets messy there, sometimes. Our stories are different, so they don't always blend well together. Sometimes it's easier to sit alone and read to ourselves the story of our own lives than it is to go live out the story I think God wants us to write in those circles in between us.

I was doing some reading this morning in the book of Micah. Micah was a Jewish prophet. When he wrote the book of Micah, many of the Jewish people had a lot of different ideas about what it meant to honor God - most of them having to do with honoring idols and sacrificing animals and children.

Micah gets to wondering out loud, what does it even mean to honor God?

He wonders in Micah 6:6-8, is it sacrificing baby calves? Is it thousands of rams or armloads of olive oil? Is it sacrificing one's firstborn?

I get there some days myself, Micah. (Not sacrificing my kids, even though we have had our days 🤷‍♂️). But I get to wondering, what exactly it is God wants from me? What does God want from my circle in life - how can I honor him - how can I let him know I'm here and I want to give him my attention?

Micah goes on to answer his own question. Micah says, "he has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

I read that this morning and I got to thinking about those circles again.

Sometimes we see God as his own circle. We see our relationship with God as my little circle talking up in the air to God's great big giant circle. But I think what Micah is saying this morning - saying to me anyways - is that God is in that circle between you and me.

God is in that circle, and when we interact seeking justice for one another in that circle, when we interact with kindness to one another in that circle, and when we truly come to that cirlce with a desire to make a beautiful story out of the circle we create in our intersection there - even if it means shrinking the size of our own individual circle - God is in THAT circle.

Too often I find myself retreating to my own circle and building a fortress around it. I look out into the world, and I see people scrambling to build similar forts around their own circles.

Sometimes I think we do this to keep our own idea of God safe and warm in there. Sometimes to avoid exposing God to the messes that come when we meet in the circles between us. Sometimes I think we do it out of fear of exactly what God will make out of that circle between us.

But this morning, I believe more than ever, we aren't going to see much of God in our lives if we don't go into those circles in the middle. Too often, I think we can stand in our own circles, hold high in the air to God all of these things we think he wants - reading our bibles and devotionals, showing up to church on Sunday, following every law and every commandment.

I wonder this morning - I'm picturing it, really - if while we're standing in our own little circles holding all of these things high in the air, I'm wondering if God isn't looking rather indifferently toward them all, and simply pointing at the circle in between us.

I wonder if he's pointing and saying, "I'm in there, dear child, not up here."