Loneliness is an epidemic. We either isolate ourselves or isolate others. It’s almost like a cycle. At the heart of it is a detachment we have for each other. A detachment that is heartbreaking because God created us for presence.

Being isolated is not just about being physically absent. Even when we’re with people we can be all alone. That’s because presence is so much more than just seeing or hearing or even touching someone else. It’s about acknowledging them.

God created us to know and be close to each other. To have relationship with each other. And because of that, he has made it possible for us to get close to his presence. That’s a tall order for a God that is relatively invisible to all of our physical senses.

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament talk about the presence of God. It’s mentioned a lot! And for a God who is hard to feel sometimes, that may seem strange. Maybe not, though. Maybe God knows that we need to experience his presence. Since it’s not so easy, he does his own part. As you read about it, it’s almost like he wants us to work for it.

In Exodus 33 we learn about Moses’ personal relationship with God. At one point they are called friends, they talk to each other “face to face.” That’s just a saying. Don’t take it literally. In fact, later in the chapter, God says, “You can’t see my face.” Instead, he’s going to make Moses work for it. He’ll show him his goodness rather than his glory.

Moses wants a spiritual experience. God wants something else. He wants a transformative one. You can have a spiritual experience and yet remain the same. But when you get a glimpse of God’s goodness, it’s tough to live the way you’ve always lived.

“I will not show you my face but I will show you my goodness.” That’s what we need to be looking for – not some evidence of God’s existence but the proof of God’s goodness.

And that’s what we get when we live in his presence. So, the big question now…How can I live in God’s presence?. First, we need to reset by rediscovering awe. Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of greatness. And there is nothing greater than the goodness of God. Maybe there is something numbing our awe?

Second, we need to develop practices that create awareness of God’s presence. They include being quiet, remembering God’s work, gathering together and praying for each other. When we do this, it positions us to notice God.

What is keeping us from noticing God? What roadblocks are out there in our everyday lives that keep us from experiencing his presence? I want to share a few ideas about this.

First of all, I think busyness is a big distraction from the presence of God. We wear our busyness like a badge. It used to be that we would ask someone, “How are you doing?” They would say, “Good, you?” Now we all say… “Busy!” It’s like we’re trying to score points by how cluttered our schedules are. And that busyness keeps us from doing the things that position us to experience presence.

When we aren’t busy, we make ourselves busy. The second roadblock is technology. We are surrounded by it and we make ourselves think that we use it to make life easier. Instead, we end up using it to distract us. We get busy and stay busy, and when we aren’t busy we zone out on our iPhones, laptops, TVs, you name it!

We get busy, we get lost in technology, and then we get bored. The third roadblock is boredom. And listen, I get it. The pathway to God’s presence is prayer. But I’ll be the first one to admit that prayer can be hard some days. You get tired, your mind wanders…you may even fall asleep!

The answer is not to start cutting our busy schedules (or maybe it is) or to cut the cord to our devices (God knows I need that sometimes) or even to cut through our boredom. We just need to recognize these roadblocks and leverage those times and those emotions to notice God.

I look at my calendar this week and it’s stacked. I’m busy! “God, I’m going to need to feel you this week to get through this.”

I find myself scrolling social media a bit too much. I stop. “God, please make sure my heart is safe right now. What am I missing?”

I go through the routine and get bored. I look around me. “God, show up in the mundane so that I know you’re there.”

These are simple things. Not life-changing, seismic shifts. Just a few little adjustments to get a better look at the goodness of God.

I have been a Pastor since 1997. Over the course of those years, a phrase has emerged that drives the thinking and philosophy of church work: “Healthy things grow”. That phrase is well-intentioned but has left us with a confusing narrative. The implication is that the health or growth of a church is similar to a healthy tree. A growing tree is healthy and a dying tree is bad. Using biology in this example is reasonable. Yet, this is not the full picture.  I am 5′ 9 1/2″ tall (yes I add the 1/2 inch, don’t judge me). Biologically, I will never grow any taller and will probably even shrink a little. The only growth I can expect to have will be around my waist, unhealthy growth from eating too much. I can try and try and try, I will never be six feet tall.

When we are children we look forward to growing taller and stronger, to being a big kid.  Our physicians measure our growth, parents measure our growth with the little line and age on the frame of a door. As an adult, I talk in terms of health, not growth. I try to manage what I eat, exercise regularly, stand more than I sit, all in an attempt to live a healthy thriving life. The question of physical growth is not one that ever enters into the equation.

I am not writing this from the cheap seats of an envious critic, in 9 years the church I pastor grew 77%. Numbers mean an expansion of God’s kingdom, for that I am grateful. The question that has been circling in my head is “have we put so much emphasis on growth that we have diminished the value of health?” I have seen too many great but discouraged pastors give up because their church was not “growing”, yet they were making a significant impact on the lives of people.

Don’t start gathering stones, I still get excited when our church has a numerical increase. However, what happens when it’s not growing? In the past when growth lagged, I found myself falling down the hill named success into the valley of depression and the pit of despair (see Princess Bride). The numbers at times determined my mood and the way I behaved at home. Let’s just be honest, the success elephant has taken all the space in the room leaving us deformed and disfigured. In the church world, success is defined as a large growing church, preferably with multiple locations. Think of any church conference you have ever been to where the speakers are pastors whose churches started in a basement and now have 10,000 people and 27 campuses across the galaxy. Why not the pastor who has faithfully served his “small” church for 45 years relying on God’s wisdom to navigate the challenges of leading a faith community without the resources of a larger church.

This past year we have been experiencing a plateau and we have been asking “why?”. This leads to questions about strategy, bell curves, hiring consultants (not opposed to that), in an attempt to jump-start the engine of growth. Are we missing an opportunity in our plateaus, to rediscover the weightier eternal matters of life and faith. Using this time to focusing on growing in spiritual disciplines, kindness, justice, compassion and becoming like Christ. I am not diametrically opposed to words like strategy, entrepreneurship, and metrics, however, I fear we are in danger of making them an idol. Most of us would say “of course not”, but if we look closely into the hidden places of our hearts, what would we find?

I had an experience some time ago. I was driving home from my office and I heard, as best as I can explain and understand, the voice of God, saying “you worship numbers and they are your god”. It was terrifying and I needed to repent. At that moment my heart and perspective began to change. Of course, I would like our church to grow numerically, I would be lying if I denied that. From that experience, I have gotten in touch with a deeper pastoral calling. To love the people I serve and the community I live in with the love Christ modeled.

May we seek God’s wisdom, guidance, and heart.  Let’s celebrate the small-town pastor who loves his people and community as much as the megastar pastor in a major metropolitan area with 10 campuses.  After all, both have accepted a weighty calling to care for people and that is what matters most.

Like the restoration of a famous painting that has collected centuries of dirt and grime, our own faith needs a reset now and then. The reason we often have to reset is that we’ve added layers and layers to something that was always meant to be simple.

But resets can be messy. Take your garage for instance. To reset your garage and really get it clean you have to roll your sleeves up and get to work. Get dusty and dirty. Get sweaty. Get messy.

Our faith can get messy when we go through a reset. But what you end up with on the other side is always worth the work and risk. Because you’ll always get to the essence of that faith.

John, in his gospel, used two words to describe the essence of Jesus – grace and truth. In other words, when you flake away the layers and layers of culture and debate and study and doctrine, at the heart of it Jesus’ mission can be described with these two simple words.

He came to give us grace.

He came to give us truth.

Why is it, then, that we are so stubborn to receive them? Let’s look at what each of those words mean. For a moment, put away all the layers that you’ve built on top of those two words and try to get to the heart of each of them.

Grace, or charis in the Greek, means favor. It’s the same word that would be used to describe a gift, something unearned but given anyway. It’s a kindness. The important thing to understand here is that it is not earned.

Truth, or alitheia in the Greek, means the way things are. It’s a confirmation of an external reality. Again, the important thing to understand here is that is it not subjective.

At his very core, Jesus is grace and truth. He doesn’t just offer them to us without strings attached. He is grace and truth. If you know Jesus, then you know grace and truth.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

John 14:6

So if we want to know God’s truth, we need to know God’s Son – Jesus. And if we want to experience his grace, then we need to get close to Jesus.

But in rejecting grace and truth, we end up reject Jesus. We would never do that, right? John 1:11 says that we have. “He came to his own, but his own did not receive him.” You could say it this way – “He came to give grace and truth to those who needed it most, but they rejected them both.” Why? I struggle to understand this.

I think the key is that as important as grace and truth are, they require us to do something very difficult. We have to admit that we are not enough and that we are wrong.

The reason we reject grace is that it means we have to admit that we aren’t able on our own to save ourselves. And that’s hard to do. The American spirit? You can do anything you put your mind to. The Instagram lifestyle? You’re good enough on your own and you don’t need anyone else’s help. The DIY mentality? You’ve got this all by yourself.

But the concept of grace refuses to believe any of that. It’s the exact opposite. You need someone else to help you out of your situation. That’s grace.

The reason we reject truth is pretty much the same. We have to admit we are wrong, and no one wants that. In the “post-truth” society we live in, we see error as weakness. To be strong means that we never make a mistake. No red pen marks on our ledger.

But the concept of truth is not about correcting wrongs. It’s about embracing the reality that is all around us. Not only the harsh ones, but the great truth of God’s love for us.

Grace and truth. Hard pills to swallow. But both necessary if we want to be closer to Jesus.

Most of us seem to lean one way or the other. We either come down hard on truth in raising our kids, leaving no room for grace. Or we go soft on the other person, denying the wrongs that stare us in the face.

What is amazing is that God doesn’t choose one over the other. Grace and truth are never an either/or proposition. They work together, in tandem. When we accept the truth about ourselves, we can lead others into that same truth. When we receive grace in our lives, we are ready to offer it to others when they fail.

The first key to resetting our lives in the same mold as Jesus is to accept grace and truth for ourselves. Once we’ve done that, we can start spreading it around. It’s not just about a reset for the sake of our own faith. It’s about being able to extend it to others.

We all need a reset now and then. In fact, almost everything in our lives need a reset from time to time. Those plants you forgot to water? Give them a drink and they’ll come back to full bloom. A fresh coat of paint or a deep cleaning will reset your house. And every kid is hoping for a reset in the new school year, a blank slate and a chance to get better grades.

There’s one thing we all have (or almost all of us) that needs a reset from time to time. Your smartphone. Depending on  your model and version you may need to force quit your apps. You might need to uninstall it and reinstall if it’s really bad. And when it just doesn’t seem to work at all? That’s when you reset to factory settings.

I don’t know this because I’m an electronics expert. I know this because my parents think I’m an electronic expert. Within fifteen minutes of meeting them they are bound to say, “Here, my phone doesn’t work. Can you fix it?” Of course I can’t, but I bet you already know what I tell them.

“Try turning it off and on again.”

We all need a reset in our lives. A turning off of the things that just don’t seem to be working anymore. A turning on of the paths and disciplines that led us closer to Christ in our past. It’s normal and natural, actually. Just like the world goes through seasons, our soul goes through times of growth and warmth until we hit moments of decline and cold.

It’s not a sign of sin and rebellion, that we’ve lost our salvation. It merely signals us to return to what matters most. That’s a bold statement. Who gets to decide what matters most to us? Down deep within all of us there is a witness, a part of our soul that testifies to what is right and what has gone wrong.

That’s the sure sign that a reset is needed. That things aren’t going right anymore. Or at least they aren’t going as right as they once did. What causes that decline or delay? Think about that computer or electronic component that needs a rest. Think of your overgrown garden or messy garage. It’s because we’ve added layers of stuff – programs that slow down computing speed or boxes that take up too much space.

In our souls, we may have added layers of stuff that require us to reset. When you feel that tug in your heart that things just aren’t going right, you have to ask. “Have I added layers of stuff, culture, preferences, interpretations, rules, expectations, traditions to my faith? And in doing so, am I darkening the vision of my creator, changing the original vision of the heavenly artist?”

Jesus came at a time in history when a major reset was needed. He scraped away the layers of religion that had clouded their understanding of just who God was and is. We need that reset today I think.

We have gotten lost in the grime and pollution of our own legalism and misguided traditions. We have lost sight of the goodness of God. We need to reset and clear out some clutter.

But what clutter? That’s a great question. I can’t answer it for you. But let me help you.

Before we go on in this series, it may be helpful to take a look at your life and see what needs to be cleared out. What major area of your life is in need of resetting?

• Is it a constantly busy schedule?

• Is it a relationship that has been wounded for so long you’re just numb to it now?

• Maybe it could be a health problem or a mental strain?

• Perhaps you’re loaded down with too much responsibility?

• How is your attitude towards others?

• How is your perception of yourself?

There are so many things that need to be cleared out, canceled and reset. We can only take them one at a time. But we can all take them with the same goal in mind – the goodness of God. Not living in a way to avoid hell or judgment, but in a way that embraces our true lives in him, in heaven. Here on earth. Let’s reset with goodness and move forward with hope.