And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him.  Judges 16:20

“Where’s Grandma?” someone asked.  The family looked around and realized…she was gone.  She had quietly slipped out the back door. 

It wasn’t the first time.  As they would get together, they would find that they had so much to catch up on.  One of the granddaughters had jokingly whispered to the others, “Do you want to hear the family gossip?”  They had laughed at how she had worded it. 

But their grandma would NOT have laughed.  They knew that as their tongues got looser and looser, Grandma’s spirit would be troubled.  After telling the family news and “solving” the family problems, someone would think of Grandma.  They would look up and realize that at some point, she had left.  Quietly.  With no fanfare.  She had been bothered by the topics and had silently left…unnoticed.

As some of this family told me this story, I thought of the Holy Spirit.  This is the way that He leaves.  Quietly.  Unnoticed.  He doesn’t beat down our doors.  He is troubled by our topics, our discussions, and our attitudes.  He quietly slips away. 

The Scriptures admonish us to make sure that our words are “good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.  And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”

Wow!  This is a really hard one for me!  Seriously, I say SO MANY more words than some people, that it seems I should be exempt somehow.  But I’m not.  I find myself praying with the Psalmist, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my Redeemer.” 

I am in such need of God’s abiding presence and His direction that I can’t afford to have Him distancing Himself.  I can’t afford to be like Samson and raise up and find that the Lord has departed.  I can’t afford to grieve the Spirit by my words.  In this year with so much talk of social distancing, I tell God, “Don’t distance from me!  I need You!”  I can’t afford for Him to slip out the back door.