As part of the process that I have undergone toward discerning my call to ministry and how I experience the work and word of God in my own life, I have spent a great deal of time working out my own experience of God.  This does not mean that I get out my pencil and drafting paper and try to draw meaningful pictures of the Divine (the truth is, my drawing would only inspire a 3-year-old…  or maybe a 2-year old…).  Instead, what I mean is that I have been thinking about how God works and how God relates to creation and humanity.

Here is a little bit of what I think about God.  I believe that God is infinite.  What I mean by that is that I think that God is in all places at all times, that God is all-knowing and all-powerful, and that God is supremely good.  It follows, then, that if God is all of these things, then God is not only the one who is able to observe the world from the Heavens – getting the “big picture” of the whole of creation – but that God is also intimately present in the life of us all.  I believe that God is constantly talking to us and calling us to do good.

Part of the intimacy through which God relates to us means to me that God speaks our language!  I think that God – as part of being all-knowing – understands that everybody listens and understands in different ways.  More than the certainty that God speaks to French-speakers in French and English-speakers in English, I think that God goes even beyond that.  Any parent will say that they sometimes think their children speak a different language.  John Gray (author of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus) would say that men and women speak different languages.

I think that accountants speak their own language; computer engineers speak their own language; doctors, astronauts, business executives, law enforcement, politicians, and even seminarians seem to each speak their own language in many ways.  Clearly we are able to communicate with one another about the important things, but not about everything.  And I think that God transcends all of these and is able to call out to each one of us individually in the way that we can best hear and understand.

So is one of these ways by which God communicates better than another?  I don’t think so.  I think that God’s message itself is the important part, regardless of the manner of communication.

As we each continue on our faith journey, let us be receptive to God’s call on our lives and in our hearts.  Peace…

Pastor Bob