Why I Believe – Unique Direction Part 2

Greetings Dear Reader,

At this juncture I come to a crossroads.  What do I do about this God that I believe exists and believe is higher than me.  I try not to “Bible thump” in my thoughts and questions but I would also state clearly that I accept the Bible as authoritative.   The crossroad that I must address is one leaving my own thinking and looking at outside sources.  I am getting ahead of myself.

The whole reason I bring this up that one must ponder how God would reveal himself to us.  This is the idea of direction that I wish to explain in my journey toward God.  Either there is something greater than me or there is not.  It is a binary choice.  I choose to believe that there is.  To think there is not seems prideful or arrogant. 

Again if I am totally honest I feel that I am trying to dance on ping pong balls here.  Since most who dismiss my views also dismiss the Bible it is difficult to explain my views without one of God’s keys sources of revelation.  Here I come to a ponderous place that causes me great discomfort.  I wonder how many people have really read the Bible as opposed to studying it.  There is a vast difference.   

When I first considered following Christ genuinely I read the Bible.  I looked for the story not the theology or the dogma.  I looked to see what God wanted me to know about God.  What I saw was a God with very little gray.  He seemed very all or nothing in regards to his desire for us to follow him.  Even in his commands though there was a thread of love.

In this then I began to see that there was a difference between me and God.  Mapping that difference comes down to asking what God and I expect from each other.  If God is going to hold a position of authority as the Bible claims he does, then what gives him the right to do so?

The thing that first go my attention was that God wished to journey to me so that I could journey to him.  It makes no sense to me that we say we have studied the Bible but that we have not truly read the story.  I will get to the bits that are necessary for a divine being to relate to mortals but first I would offer this:  Would someone dare boil down the relationship he has to his spouse to “I have studied her and find her suitable.”?  Should a woman evaluate her husband based on studying things about him when the relationship is to be based on love that is bidirectional? 

In kind, when our children do not understand what we do how do we feel about them treating us badly?  How do we measure their love of us when they reject our ways?  We love them anyway.  We grieve for their lack of understanding.  We show them patience, grace, and kindness in hopes that they will see that we are not as misguided and simple as they think we are.

I came to the place where I saw that God had to be higher than me and that he did truly love me.  He is more than a parent but wants me to see his Father aspect through Christ.  He is more than a bridegroom but wishes me to see him as a loving a faithful husband.  He is more than good but wishes me to see him in my goodness to others.  I cannot merely study God and hope to relate to him.  The journey is one of relationship. 

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."