God Is Never Somewhere Else
- Andrew Eddins
- 7 days ago
- 5 min read
I’m getting ready to be a dad… again.
And lately I’ve been asking myself, “What have I actually learned in the four years since our first child was born?”
Sure, I’ve picked up plenty of practical parenting wisdom—
“The days are long but the years are short,”
“Patience is a virtue,”
“Sometimes pants will be optional around the house.”
But the greatest lesson I’ve learned isn’t about parenting techniques at all.
It’s about life with God.
And it’s this simple, provocative idea:
God is never somewhere else.
The Illusion of “Better Days”
I remember those early months of fatherhood—the ones people lovingly refer to as survival mode. In the chaos of late-night feedings, blowout diapers, and living off three cups of coffee and 45 minutes of sleep, my wife and I would joke that, “Success today is keeping our child alive.”
And by the grace of God, we did.
But buried beneath our joking was an assumption: better days were somewhere ahead of us. Days with fewer bags under our eyes, days when our child needed us a little less, days when a date night wasn’t something we’d have to plan weeks in advance.
Spiritually, I found myself thinking the same way:
“When things settle down, then I’ll work on my relationship with God.”
Have you ever used that phrase?
“When things settle down, I’ll start writing.”
“When things settle down, I’ll start traveling again.”
“When things settle down, I’ll get back to doing the things that I love.”
Underneath that phrase lies the quiet belief that the “good life” is waiting somewhere in the future, which blinds us to the gifts and opportunities that the present moment has to offer.
The God We Think Is “Elsewhere”
Sometimes we think this way about God.
Many of us fall into the illusion that God is tucked away inside the four walls of a church building. Others think of God like Bette Midler’s famous lyric:
“God is watching us… from a distance.”
While I’ll never critique Midler’s musical talent, I will gladly critique her theology.
Because Jesus did not preach “God from a distance.” He preached a God who is closer than we think. A God whom one could access by simply putting their trust in Him and calling on His name.
Let me say it plainly:
God is available to you here in this moment—not somewhere else at later time.
Retreats, worship services, and quiet spaces matter, of course. But they only matter as a means to an end. They help train us to recognize God when life is loud, messy, and anything but spiritual. Their purpose is not to limit God to those sacred moments, but to help us notice Him in the unspectacular ones.
The danger comes when we keep postponing the search for God until “things settle down”… because they rarely do.
We only ever find God in the present.
God in the Messy Middle
And this is the good news:
God does not wait for life to calm down before He wants to meet with you.
He wants to join you—in the chaos,—in the diapers,—in the anxiety,—in the juggling of work, kids, and a spiritual life that feels half-awake.
He not only wants to meet with you, but desires to fill you with the abundant resources that He has at his disposal to help you work through your current mess.
He doesn’t require a sacred atmosphere, because HE HIMSELF is the sacred atmosphere.
I’m writing this in the Christmas season—the season that celebrates the birth of Immanuel, which means “God with us” (Matt. 1:23). Not God with us in December. Not God with us in candlelit church services.
God with us at the Gas Station.
Got with us in the heated argument between me and my significant other.
God with us in a lonely hotel room when destructive thoughts enter my mind.
God with us. Always. Everywhere.
Before Jesus physically left His disciples, He reminded them of this reality (Matt. 28:20). His departure didn’t remove His presence—mysteriously, it multiplied it.
So the question is never: “Is God somewhere else?”
The real question is: “Am I somewhere else?”
Because we humans are experts in being physically present but mentally far away—especially when worry or fear takes over. My wife once said to me during a season of anxiety, “You’re not really here right now, are you?” And she was right. I wasn’t. Anxiety had relocated me.
Reframing Heaven, Reframing God
Sometimes we think God is far because we assume Heaven is far. But philosopher Dallas Willard challenges this while teaching on the Lord’s Prayer:
“Unfortunately, the old standard, ‘Our Father who art in heaven, has come to mean ‘Our Father who is far away and much later.’ But the meaning of the plural heavens, which is erroneously omitted in most translations, sees God present as far ‘out’ as imaginable but also right down to the atmosphere around our heads, which is the first of ‘the heavens.’ The omission of the plural robs the wording in the model prayer of the sense Jesus intended. That sense is, ‘Our Father always near us.’”
Our Father… always near us.
What if that was your image of God?
What if God wasn’t a distant spectator or an elderly judge in the clouds?
What if He was a tender Father in the very atmosphere around your head?
A God at your left and right in your highest highs and lowest lows?
Because that is, in fact, the God Jesus described.
The Ending That’s Actually a Beginning
We must break the illusion that God is “somewhere else” or waiting in “another season.” Otherwise, we will constantly miss Him in the season we’re currently living.
God is never somewhere else.
He is here.
With you.
Now.
And the greatest shift you can make—whether you’re an exhausted parent, an anxious soul, or simply a human being trying to stay present—is to ask:
“In light of the fact that God is here, how can I meet with Him in this sacred space?”
Because He’s already here.
Always has been.
Always will be.
CHARACTER TRAINING
Here are two practices that have helped heighten my awareness of God’s closeness throughout my day. I invite you to experiment with one or both this month:
Practice “Holy Interruptions”
Jesus was the master of many things, but most notably he was the master of being interruptible. If you read the gospels, you’ll notice that many of Jesus’s miracles were performed while he was on his way to go do something else. Imagine if Jesus had said, “I’m so sorry but my Father is doing something a few miles ahead at a later date.” Jesus knew that his Father was not just at work at his destination, but He was even present in the interruptions along the way.
So, instead of seeing unexpected interruptions as obstacles, treat them as invitations.
When something breaks your plans—kids needing you, a work interruption, traffic—practice saying:
“God, you’re here too.”
This transforms interruptions from burdens into sacred moments.
The Immanuel Journal
Once or twice a week, write a half-page answering this simple prompt:
“If God was with me today (and He was), where did I experience Him?” And if you’re not fully convinced that it was God in that moment, maybe start by asking, “What surprised me today? What caught my attention today?”
Journaling helps patterns emerge over time—where you tend to be present, where you tend to drift, and where God consistently meets you.
FREE REFLECTION GUIDE:
Below is a short reflection guide with some discussion questions you may want to rflect on with your spiritual friends.
