How to Find God

I read this morning about Paul's conversion experience.  I'm interested in how Eugene Peterson paraphrases Paul's observation of the event.  He said, his entrance wasn't anything like he had planned. Acts 22:11 - And so we entered Damascus, but nothing like the entrance I had planned—I was blind as a bat and my companions had to lead me in by the hand.  For those reading who are searching for truth, for answers for the real God let me offer some insight that parallels what one of the most important men in the history of the world experienced... 


when you find God it won't be on your terms.  


A great deal of our problem is that we want to control how this all looks, feels, smells, sounds like.  The reality is God will allow life to reduce you to to nothing before you can see He's everything.  A problem with religion is that it can easily be misused, causing us to think, "if I just change a few things and clean a few areas up then I'll probably find God." Some people spend their whole lives cleaning up, like I'm doing this morning in my family room after my boy's slumber party, thinking that if one more blanket gets folded then God will have room to move in.  Kierkegaard said, "God creates everything out of nothing - and everything that God will use he first reduces to nothing."  Sooner or later, like Paul, you'll be helpless, blind as a bat.  That's when you'll see. 
 

Listening to our Own Echoes

If we only talk with those who sound like us how will we hear?
If we only look at those who look like us how will we see?
If we only touch those who touch like us how will we feel?

Self-sorting niches, groups, societies, churches, teams, politics, schools, religions, ideologies are a mixed blessing. However unpleasant it might be, a good dose of pluralism is indispensable for maturity.

The Good Samaritan not only helped someone else... he helped himself.

The Religious Caste

Galatians 3:22-23(the message) - For if any kind of rule-keeping had power to create life in us, we would certainly have gotten it by this time.

Rule-keeping doesn't have the power to create life. But it does have the power to create a religious caste and... the religious caste has the power to make the rules. The system will give high scores to those aware of the big rules (i.e. sins of the flesh) and give low scores to those aware of the lesser rules. (i.e. sins of the spirit) It is these religious-score-keeping, rule-makers that, I think, Jesus was most upset about. Check out what Jesus says about them in Matthew 23(the message) As John Ortberg says, "They actually thought they were paragons of spiritual maturity because they avoided the sins of the flesh. They had no idea that their sin crippled their ability to love - which makes the sins of the spirit the most dangerous and destructive sins of all."

Blaise Pascal said, "Men never do evil so completely as when they do it from a religious conviction."



(This whole thought also brings to mind the apt and descriptive phrase, "holiness by subtraction." I believe I have heard this before but I'll attribute it to Mark Batterson as I know he's written about it)

Man-Created Trinity of Terrors

"I'm not to big on religion," Jesus said a little sarcastically, "and not very fond of politics or economics either." Jesus' visage darkened noticeably. "And why should I be? They are the man-created trinity of terrors that ravages the earth and deceives those I care about. What mental turmoil and anxiety does any human face that is not related to one of those three?"

Mack hesitated. He wasn't sure what to say... Jesus down-shifted. "Put simply, these terrors are tools that many use to prop up their illusions of security and control. People are afraid of uncertainty, afraid of the future. These institutions, these structures and ideologies, are all a vain effort to create some sense of certainty and security where there isn't any. It's all false! Systems cannot provide you security. Only I can."

"The Shack", Page 179

Growing in the midst of Distractions

The NT calls me to "remain in Christ" and to “pray continually without ceasing.” In the light of our fast-paced society this seems impossible. There are so many distractions, and responsibilities not to mention the issues going inside my own head. Henri Nouwen once said that his mind was like a banana tree full of monkeys. I can relate. So, I dream about what it would be like to ‘get away’ or think about having more hours in the day, or more gadgets to save me time.

I could be a monk but that doesn’t seem to be practical. No doubt I look good in brown but I’m married, have kids and responsibilities. (One of my favorite monks was a guy named, Simeon the Stylite. Simeon fled society and entered the monastery. After a few years he decided that even the busy monastery interrupted his communion with God so he built a little hut and chained himself to a pole. But people kept coming by asking him to pray for them so he moved into a cave, then atop an old pillar about 10 feet high. Amazingly he found that people still stopped by, yelling, asking him for advice or for prayers. Finally he built a 60-foot pillar where apparently he lived for the remainder of his life. Simeon the Stylite was serious about removing himself from all distractions!)

While I truly appreciate the goal of one heading off to the monastery and shedding all worldly attachments it's not something I'll be able to do. My goal has got be building "little monastery's" right inside my own life. Places I can briefly go to get away. Times I set aside devoted only to God. Practices that often remind me of Him.

In many ways cultivating these habits in the midst of everyday life is more difficult than retreating into the mountains. But... difficult only in the sense that I tend to quantify difficulties, measuring them against each other, against what others are doing and getting caught up in thinking how spiritual I am to make them all a part of my routine. On the other hand, the picture Jesus painted - "I am the vine, you are the branches...", "Remain in me and I'll remain in you..." - is much less stressful. I've got a lemon tree in my backyard. I've never once heard it groan or strain in order to produce lemons. It just does. This is my goal in the middle of distraction... to remain in Him... to grow in Him... to just be....

(BTW - This is different than being like Him. Being like Him is impossibly hard. The NT asks me to be in Him. That is radically different than being like Him.)

So, I'm learning what it means to "remain in Him" at all times and to grow in spite of all the chaos around me.

Jesus was a Viral Marketer

Seth Godin says, "technology doesn't care who you hate." True. But his list highlights more than technology. It highlights speed, the personal and sometimes the authentic as well. Hmmm, makes me think of Jesus. He was effective, personal, authentic and radically different than anyone and anything of his time... and ours.

The religious institution hated him.

Do they still? In what ways would you say they do? Good questions.