So you want to know God...

So you want to know God. Many spend their whole life looking for God. They spend hours reading books or meditating. They run to church, pray, and diligently tithe. They listen to preacher after preacher and follow all the rules. They jump from belief system to belief system. And in the end, sadly, they aren't any closer to knowing God than when they started. So how DO we know God?
Let me tell you a story. Not so long ago, I had a friend that I loved very much. And he reached out to me in pain and so with deep love and compassion, I heeded his call, selflessly. In the end, I ended up with a knife deeply embedded in my back. And I was hurt; deeply hurt. I felt foolish for placing so much trust in such an unworthy individual.

But knowing God the way I do, I started looking for the gift. That's how it works, you know; within every hurt, every injustice, every tragedy there is a gift and many times this gift is simply a bit of knowledge. But in this instance, it wasn't a single gift; it was many. So many, in fact, I HAD to share all the gifts of revelation in this blog.

And I started wondering why there were so many gifts this time and I finally figured it out. When my friend needed unconditional love; I gave it. When my friend needed comfort, with love, I gave it. When my friend needed a meal, with love, I prepared it. When my friend needed advice, with love, I gave it. When my friend needed support, with love, I gave it. And THAT is how we get to know God; by BEHAVING the way Christ told us to behave.

How can we understand God's unconditional love for us, if we do not manifest it within ourselves? True. We are not perfect and will not be able to manifest it perfectly, but in that instant that we do manifest unconditional love, doesn't that give us a glimpse directly into the heart of God Himself? And when we offer comfort or advice or a meal all in love, don't we then get a glimpse of how much God WANTS to bless us?

Cold, selfish people will never know God, not with their heart. And even if they claim to know God with their mind, if they truly understood, they would do everything they could to bring this knowledge to their heart. Is this what the Bible meant when it said that the Kingdom of God is in you and among you? Because within all of us, we hold the possibility and the ability to manifest unconditional love; if we choose to.

We know that God gave us free will. Free will. That's a pretty general statement. I have a feeling, that when God gave us free will He did so, so that we had the choice of freely chosing to know and to love Him. Because that's the only way love can be genuine. If God "had" to love us, could we feel secure in that? And could this be why God freely CHOSE to love us, rather than destroy us? So that we could rest securely within His love? And isn't it only genuine love that brings us joy? Could this be why when humans procreate, we end up with babies and not full grown adults? Because in experiencing the parent/child relationship for ourselves, we clearly understand how our parent/child relationship with God is supposed to be?

So how much simpler can it get? If we want to know God, just behave the way Christ told us. It doesn't take years. You don't need a degree. You don't need to spend hours reading. Just love.