A Life Changing Pursuit
Prayer: Dear God, open my heart to receive what you want for me. Amen
Living closer to God is potentially a life changing pursuit. As we pursue this promising journey, it is critical to clarify whether we are thinking about God as an idea, or God as a potent existential reality in our lives. There is a huge difference! Alas, for many people God remains a useful idea - something to believe in, perhaps learned about as a child in Sunday school, in corporate worship devoid of spiritual content, theological literature that lacks spiritual input, seminary training offering scant spiritual thought, parental teaching or communal exchange. In these cases God is a mental concept one believes in and is committed to, perhaps with profound fervor. This is an extremely common religious posture based upon information about God, which one believes to be true. Unfortunately, as significant as all this is, it does not constitute a life changing experience. We can acquire massive amounts of information concerning God, and still never experience the reality of the existential God, the God who lives within us and inspires (breathes life into) us.
Obviously, this is not a study of God, but hopefully an intimate encounter with the Holy One. It can be like going on a blind date. You have heard about this being - now you are going out on a date, which has the potential eventually to change the course of your life.
The idea of God has been around forever. But as long as God remains in the realm of ideas, even the existence of God will continue to be a topic of debate. Of course, some ideas are better than others. The idea of God is a good idea. Some ideas may materialize into something useful or meaningful, while others may prove to be flawed and consequently released into oblivion. Thus, as long as God is relegated to the realm of ideas, the very existence of God can be accepted or rejected with absolutely no loss or gain.
It is when God becomes an existential reality for us, the spiritual experience begins to make a significant difference in our lives. Yet, even then God remains a mystery. Actually, the closer we move to God, and the more real the Holy One becomes to us, the more intense the mystery becomes.
Although we cannot comprehend God with our limited minds, we can experience the Holy One as we are engaged by God’s Spirit. Even though our minds are limited and incapable of comprehending God, our spirits are created for that precise purpose. Since our personhood includes body, mind and spirit, we are quite adequately equipped to engage God as spirit, who in turn engages us as spiritual beings. As far as we know, we are unique as humans in that we have this special capacity to experience God.
Dealing with God as an idea with our minds by all means is inconclusive and unfulfilling. For that reason people whose personal orientation to life is via the mind only, can have considerable difficulty with the idea of God. It is like attempting to saw a board with a hammer rather than a saw. It doesn’t work. Wrong tool. The mind is designed for other things, not for connecting us to God, although the mind can evaluate this connection. Our spiritual nature engages God because this connection is a spiritual experience. It also has far reaching ramifications. This entire experience of being intimately engaged with God can bring about a complete transformation of our lives. It has the potential of totally changing our course in life. Learning to live closer to God can be a life changing pursuit.
Having read the above material you might want to reread it, and attempt to locate where you are on the continuum. Then decide if that is where you want to be. If not, then where do you want to be? What do you want out of this journey? Do you want to grow closer to God? If so, be open to change in your life?
