{"id":1615,"date":"2012-08-17T14:45:23","date_gmt":"2012-08-17T18:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/?p=1615"},"modified":"2012-08-15T14:55:32","modified_gmt":"2012-08-15T18:55:32","slug":"where-did-god-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/08\/where-did-god-go.html","title":{"rendered":"Where Did God Go?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are so many bad things happening around the world and in America.\u00a0 Some people would blame it all on God.\u00a0 Over the past few years, we have experienced devastating hurricanes and tornadoes which have taken many innocent lives.\u00a0 We have had earthquakes and flooding.\u00a0 Wild fires are at this moment burning uncontrolled out west.\u00a0 Most of the country is in the midst of a major draught.<\/p>\n<p>We have had oil spills, strange\u00a0shark shrimp invading our coastline and\u00a0 destructive fish and algae threatening our fresh waterways.\u00a0 We have wild animals wandering into residential neighborhoods and gunmen shooting people for no apparent reason.\u00a0 Homes sliding into the ocean because of too much rain; fires burning millions of dollars of forest and real estate.<\/p>\n<p>Thank God we have not suffered another major terrorist attack on American soil since 9-11-2001.\u00a0 Did I say &#8220;Thank God&#8221;?\u00a0 Where has He been during all this destruction and death?\u00a0 Is He on vacation?\u00a0 Is He taking a nap?\u00a0 I DON&#8217;T THINK SO!<\/p>\n<p>I think God is very sad to see these things happening.\u00a0 I believe He is concerned for those affected by such devastation.\u00a0 I believe He weeps over America and all the ugliness found there.\u00a0 But, for years we have told God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government, and to get out of our lives.\u00a0 God is a gentleman and will not violate our free will, so He has allowed us to go down a path of destruction without Him.<\/p>\n<p>How can we expect God to give us His blessing and protection when we have told Him to get out of our lives?\u00a0 Some have shook their fist in His face and told Him to leave America alone.\u00a0 We readily accept what CNN or NBC news tells us, yet we can&#8217;t believe that the Bible is God&#8217;s word.\u00a0 Most of us are more worried about what our friends think of us than what God thinks.\u00a0 We have become professional people pleasers, without thought of how God Almighty feels about what we are saying or doing.<\/p>\n<p>We can&#8217;t have it both ways.\u00a0 Either we want God to guide and protect America or we don&#8217;t. We can&#8217;t keep thumbing our noses at Him and expect God to be there for us.\u00a0 He does allow His marvelous grace to spare us from some things.\u00a0 He still watches over us and cares about us.\u00a0 Many times He prevents bad things from happening or makes situations less traumatic. He is a good God and He will love us no matter how we treat Him.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are so many bad things happening around the world and in America.\u00a0 Some people would blame it all on God.\u00a0 Over the past few years, we have experienced devastating hurricanes and tornadoes which have taken many innocent lives.\u00a0 We have had earthquakes and flooding.\u00a0 Wild fires are at this moment burning uncontrolled out west.\u00a0&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":420,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14],"tags":[10,19,28],"class_list":["post-1615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-encouragement","category-inspiration","tag-being-judgemental","tag-faith","tag-truth"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Where Did God Go? - Small Town America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/08\/where-did-god-go.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Where Did God Go? - Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are so many bad things happening around the world and in America.\u00a0 Some people would blame it all on God.\u00a0 Over the past few years, we have experienced devastating hurricanes and tornadoes which have taken many innocent lives.\u00a0 We have had earthquakes and flooding.\u00a0 Wild fires are at this moment burning uncontrolled out west.\u00a0&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/08\/where-did-god-go.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-17T18:45:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-08-15T18:55:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dhanny\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Where Did God Go? - Small Town America","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/08\/where-did-god-go.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Where Did God Go? - Small Town America","og_description":"There are so many bad things happening around the world and in America.\u00a0 Some people would blame it all on God.\u00a0 Over the past few years, we have experienced devastating hurricanes and tornadoes which have taken many innocent lives.\u00a0 We have had earthquakes and flooding.\u00a0 Wild fires are at this moment burning uncontrolled out west.\u00a0&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/08\/where-did-god-go.html","og_site_name":"Small Town America","article_published_time":"2012-08-17T18:45:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-08-15T18:55:32+00:00","author":"dhanny","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/08\/where-did-god-go.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/08\/where-did-god-go.html","name":"Where Did God Go? 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