John 1:35-42 Finding God Starting Today(Click here for readings)
John was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.
“How can I find God in my life?” This is a question I receive almost on a daily basis. It is a consequence of our personally long years of public school education, our very public “keep your religion to yourself” coco-washing ideology, and our separation of Church and State idiocracy.
Does man really need to search for God? Is God hiding? Has God run off? Have we scared him to death?
Without a doubt, the greatest challenge that we are facing today is a current of thought known as secularism. This current of thought promotes a way of life as if God did not exist. It reduces God to the private sphere – to a sentiment – as if He were not an objective reality but an imaginary friend, a dream, a figment of our imagination.
We may not know many secularists but we have all been influenced by them. For the secularist, reason is the measurement of everything. For the Christian, reason is the window to reality. For the secularist, the truth is what we know. For the Christian, the truth is reality. Therefore, the secularist loves to separate truth from good, truth from beauty, truth from freedom. “Do whatever you want!” is their Battle hymn of the Republic.
So, what can I do to help others find God in their lives? It is very simple. I do what Christ did with the intelligent sinners, the blind, the lepers and the crippled. I help them see. I help them walk. I help them recover. What does this mean? It means to live your life as if you were never forced to ignore God in your school or in your work place. It means to keep your religion as you would keep your head and share your faith as you would share your thoughts, a pizza, a pie or a hug.
It means to speak of every individual not in the imaginary terms of a computer or machine but as an image and likeness of the Creator.
It means to respect the world we were given and stop acting as if it belonged to us. It means to stop naming lands as nations but as the City of God. It means to believe much more in God’s creation than in men’s inventions! Never forget that boundaries are men’s inventions and wars are men’s occupations. I hear it said very often that religion creates wars. What poor logic! It's like saying the well-fed start wars! After all, only they have the money and strength to fight; the starving and poor do not! So think twice about feeding the poor! If you are not convinced, then consider this: Only men have started wars. So are we to stop having male children! Finally, consider this. If we had only been more environmentally conscientious early on, how many wars would we have avoided if we had demolished and abolished all trees! Think of all the lives we would have saved if we had no wood for clubs, spears or arrows!
If you want to find God in your life, then take off your mask and stop hiding your face with sins. Stop boasting. Stop sinning. Stop stepping on others to “do whatever you want” but start living the Gospel truth: “Treat your neighbor as yourself.” Is this not the best way to end all wars? To love one another? Who said this first?
Think of every life as a confirmation of the Big Bang Theory. Yes, every life as coming from nothing; every life as an explosion of love. Think of every decision not as a movement of molecules and atoms but as moment of free will. Think for as long as you can of every night, every day, every stream and every river as brush strokes on a painting. Think of every mountain, every valley, every tree and every beach as an Art Gallery. It’s easy if you try. Go ahead and think of every building as mound of junk; every home as a Church; every child as a baby seal; every family as peddles of the same flower. Do you see how it all makes sense? Think of every prayer as an Amendment to our Constitution or the soul speaking through dreams.
Think of your Columbus as our Jesus, surrounded by distracters and doubters. And our God as your America, just waiting to be discovered, for not all things have been discovered, but one day will.
