Experiencing God

You can choose what not to believe in
You can deny there's a heaven above
But once you take a look at Jesus
There's no denying that God is Love
-Michael Card

There was an interesting lunchtime discussion this week about religion. The general consensus around the table was that religion is for the weak.
"I think that if I lost my sight, life would be pretty awful and I'd probably kill myself. But there are people who can endure incredible amounts of hardships because their religion gives them comfort," one said giving me sidelong looks, "But I don't believe it's real; it's just not tangible - it's not for me."

Yet he believes in love. You cannot see or hear love. You can't touch or taste it. And regardless of what anyone has told you, you can't even smell it. But you can see its effects in people; you can come to understand it more fully by experiencing it.

Everyone seemed to think that you couldn't experience God personally, which besides being untrue, is also no cause to reject the idea of God. When I was young and naive, I believed romantic love existed. It wasn't because somebody read me a textbook on love, or argued it into me. It was because I saw the results of love at work in other people. I never had to experience it personally to believe it existed.

As for truly experiencing love... If you don't believe in it, how can you even recognize it? If you don't submit to it, how can you experience it? But you can experience love personally. And you can experience God personally. God is Love.

Concepts of love are illustrated all over our media, however inaccurate they may be. Is it for that reason that everyone believes in it? Or is it because just about everyone has or knows someone who has personally experienced some facet of love?

So how shall we illustrate God to the world? Endless debates? Reciting verses or singing songs? Writing books or giving dissertations? Or is it in living a changed life? I submit that while the former is great, without the latter nothing will be accomplished.