"Life Questions" said the U-tube video clip title. 'Looks interesting,' I thought, and clicked on it. A young man was talking to camera, explaining the major questions he wanted to ask about life. And the title above was the first one.
'Poor soul,' I thought. 'How have you never had anyone teach you how to enter and practice the presence of God? ' Very easily, I now realise. When we were a rational, scientific culture, we apprehended God, if at all, intellectually. Now we are a postmodern culture, we want experiences to sweep is up into them, and we want everything immediately - now!
But God isn't like that. He loves us to seek after him, he woos us as we are searching, giving us now an intimation of unspeakable bliss, and now a hint of the deepest peace, and now an unechoing empty cosmos, where we break our hearts as we feel as if he has left us alone.
The two thousand year-old Christian tradition has many ways, formal and informal, of seeking communion with God. But then again, God is not a slot machine, that he should respond the same way every time we go through a set routine or ritual.
The way to the Father, in principle, is through Jesus, his son. And no-one can know the Son, except through the Holy Spirit, who makes him real to us.
So Lord, I pray for that young man, and all the other people who may share his question and also for me, that you would send your Holy Spirit upon us, and help us to know you more clearly, love you more dearly and follow Jesus more nearly, every day.
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