Would I notice?

I talk to my wife frequently all day long. I interact with my one-year-old son throughout the day. I go to work and talk with my boss and coworkers routinely to do my job. I rely on electricity, internet access, and water piped into my home to survive and work. If anything happened to any of these people or things, I'd notice immediately. It would be devastating. They're integral to my existence.

In the book I'm currently reading, The Scandal of the Kingdom by Dallas Willard, the author comments that church-goers like myself are easy to fall into merely existing for ourselves, merely doing the "good" organizational and social things that make up a "church," but forgetting the reality of what the life of a group of disciples ought to be like:

Some churches today have a problem of attracting good, sensible, thoughtful people who aren’t particularly interested in having God be in charge. These people are not mean, and they’re not trying to do anything wrong. They say, “I want to be a good person. I believe in God. I want to associate with a church that is dynamic.” [...] But if God were to die, they might never know it because the church is simply functioning on good organizational principles and effective means of socialization.

I believe God's existence is immutable, so him dying isn't actually a factor. But that idea of "if God were to die, they might never know it" really stuck out to me.

If God stopped existing, would I notice? If he stopped speaking to me through his Spirit--am I even listening well enough to notice the silence? Would I go days? weeks? months? years even? before I felt the impact?

Am I building my life around the "good, sensible, thoughtful" tasks of caring for a family, working hard at my job, and going to church every Sunday, all to build my own comfortable little earthly kingdom, but forgetting who's actually King?

Do I live my life every day taking advantage of the fact that this King--far more than my wife, boss, pastor, or any other human mentor or leader--wants to moment-by-moment speak to me, teach me, lead me, encourage me, and provide for me?

His presence is necessary for my life. I want to be "good" and "sensible", yes. My family, my job, my community depends on that. But I could do nothing without Christ, so I can't sensibly keep picturing my life through the lens of what I am doing and what I find important. Merely focusing on doing what's good and sensible can lull me into forgetting to practice being an apprentice of the perfectly wise servant-king Jesus. That means listening. Noticing where he's leading. And following. Letting my hands and feet be His.