For someone in Phoenix

I know you believe that you are not close to God. That absence can seem very real, and I know what it feels like. Sometimes in my own life, God has seemed absent. And sometimes, even worse, it feels like his absence is because I chased him away. But know that it is precisely in these moments, in fact, that God has drawn closest to you. He has never walked more closely by your side.

One of the most mysterious and beautiful passages of the entire Bible is found in Genesis 32. Here are the relevant excerpts:

And Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who did say to me, `Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good,' I am not worthy of the least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness which you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, I pray you, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and slay us all, the mothers with the children. But you said, `I will do you good, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.'"

...

And Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and Jacob's thigh was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then the man said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me." And he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob."

Then he said, "Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed." Then Jacob asked him, "Tell me, I pray, your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peni'el, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved."

The sun rose upon him as he passed Penu'el, limping because of his thigh. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the sinew of the hip which is upon the hollow of the thigh, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh on the sinew of the hip.

In the worst state of anxiety over his brother Esau, whom Jacob had once cheated out of Isaac's inheritance, Jacob had reached his lowest ebb in this place. Seeing another man, Jacob desperately sought out validation – I will not let you go unless you bless me – from another man. He fought all night for the man's embrace and acknowledgment. And only upon winning it and asking the man's name did he realize that a truth far more wonderful than anything he could have hoped for had unfolded before him – God himself had blessed him!

You are right to say that “God will know the details” as I pray for you. For my part, it is only necessary that I pray for you, and love you. And I do – both.