We all have experiences that illuminate my selected title—even if we don’t acknowledge them. As long as you accept that there is an Other out there—as a creature (you didn’t make yourself) you accredit a creator—you have to be available for the possibility of an interaction with Him/Her/It/Force. Maybe you don’t have to—if He speaks, will you listen?
Because He is speaking. It’s just that most of the time He is whispering, and if you’re not listening carefully, you’re not going to get it. It seems to me that is the secret to a rich spiritual life—listening carefully, otherwise known as being aware. (A modest disclaimer here…I am only learning these things. I have never been a good listener. My students used to wave their hands in my face to get my attention.)
So how does He whisper? Family Feud answer #1 is: Through His word (and I don’t dispute that at all). Can’t go wrong with the Bible, as long as it’s reading you and not the opposite. But I think we tend to try to trap God in the Blble. “If it’s not in the Good Book, it’s not from God.” We limit how we perceive Him by how we understand one book. I came to the realization awhile back that Buddhists are seeking the same God that Christians are. There is only one God, the creator of all. (We Christians believe He is triune in essence.) Could there be two? Doesn’t that split the universe? We need to be open to God whispering to us in an infinite variety of ways.
Many of us acknowledge Him on the big stuff…God brought us together, God gave us a child, God called me to a career (maybe not so much on that one—I know too many people who hate their jobs). And, of course, we come to Him in times of desperation…an illness, a disaster, the unknown whereabouts of a loved one. It wasn’t until the end of my teaching career that I learned to pray before each class instead of during each crisis.
I don’t want to downplay those moments of illumination. Those are the major events in our lives—the plot points. But life is not a synopsis or an obituary. Its vitality is in the present—the here and now. Trapping God in the major moments is as bad as trapping Him in a book, or as bad as visiting Him once a week when you go to church. If you really want to hear Him whisper, you have to let Him decide when.
Almost everyone of a religious bent has been through those “startling” moments—swerving to miss another car, deciding not to go someplace, choosing A when you were leaning toward B—when you realize “That was the Lord.” It could have gone that way, but it went this way, favoring me—thank You. Honestly, I am inundated with those moments (if I am paying attention…). And we know, deep down, we have been favored. I freely admit that I am not addressing the problem of pain and suffering in this lost world. I am just saying that the Lord is beneficially disposed toward you. He wants it to be good. And He will respond. Listen.
The Lone Ranger was a metaphor. At the end of the show everything would be resolved and he would ride away, and one of the beneficiaries would say, “Who was that masked man?”
That was the Lord.
Well done!
That picture… might I remind you that you used to teach Photoshop…