TEN YEARS GONE: Where Is Their God? (Revised)

Beginning With Ourselves

First published Monday, February 8, 2016. Revised Friday, June 26, 2026.

 Why should it be said among the peoples, "Where is their God?"

— Joel 2

Joel paints a frightening picture.

He speaks of devastation, of a people brought low, and of a future that seems almost impossible to imagine. But the remarkable thing is that his message does not end with judgment. It turns toward hope.

The prophet calls everyone together—the old and the young, leaders and ordinary people—not to point fingers at one another, but to seek God together. The invitation is to repent, to return, and to remember who they are. And Joel declares that when the people turn back toward God, they discover that God has been eager to receive them all along. Mercy, not punishment, has the final word.

That has made me think differently about one of Joel's closing questions:

"Why should it be said among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'"

It's a question that still echoes today.

People ask it after tragedies. They ask it when churches fail. They ask it when believers speak with anger instead of grace, or when Christians become known more for winning arguments than for loving their neighbors.

The easiest response is to point outward—to explain the culture, the politics, the decline of morality, or the failures of someone else.

Joel does the opposite.

He turns the question back toward God's own people.

Where are we?

Have we become more merciful?

More generous?

More humble?

More willing to forgive?

Do our lives make it easier or harder for others to believe that God is real?

Those questions are much more uncomfortable than criticizing the world.

Over the years I have become less interested in asking whether our society is becoming more faithful and more interested in asking whether I am.

Am I becoming more patient?

Am I becoming less fearful?

Am I quicker to listen and slower to condemn?

Do people leave my presence with more hope than they had before?

Those are not political questions.

They are spiritual ones.

Perhaps Joel's invitation is not simply to repent of obvious sins, but to become the kind of people whose lives quietly answer the question before anyone has to ask it.

When people look at us, do they see mercy? Humility? Generosity? Hope? Or do they simply see another anxious, angry tribe competing for attention?

The world still asks, "Where is their God?"

Perhaps the better question is this: Where are we?