A God afar off

If I was ever asked my biggest problem with God, or confusion rather, I would say that I am often frustrated with the earnest followers I know seeking God from all different versions of religion. How can this be? Today is not the day I offer a view of predestination, baptism or even the necessary works to reach Heaven. I'm referring to major differences- such as Mormons, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims etc. I know people that earnestly seek God, much more so than I do to be honest. Yet, when I listen to them and all of their wise council, they often have things to say that cannot be totally right. Somewhere in their words the modified phrase "I've been praying and I really feel that God is telling me" or "This is God's will, I'm supposed to do this" etc. etc. You HAVE to have heard it. I say it all the time. [SIDENOTE: Do we use God as an excuse to justify our actions so that others support us- Mainly because we so desperately need others' approval to make ourselves feel better?] How can we not all hear the same Guide, the same right and wrong? How can someone earnestly seeking, someone open to hearing God's truth, not hear it?

I encountered some men from the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints the other day (Mormons). I really enjoy talking to people from all religions and so of course I invited them in. These questions I'm asking pain me once again because of these guys. They talked about how much they pray, how committed they must be in order to be a missionary, and the sacrifices they give for the church. It also makes me think about Muslims that pray, what is it, 5 times a day? Or what about the Christian who seeks God on a matter and feels she's been given a word that from a bystanders position could NOT be God's command. Ok, I'm trying to purposely exclude the non-genuine imposters that invade religion and claim to know God but do not humbly seek Him. I'm refering to the humble spirits who I genuinely believe are found in the pages of the Book of Life. I dare not widen the gates of Heaven by saying that we're ALL right in our current strivings and paths... so where's the hitch? Are we not earnestly seeking, are we just so human and tainted that we can't come to God genuinely and our world is so tangled in evil that God doesn't intervene and give us religious direction as much as He did Paul or Moses? Why is there no indication in our world as to the correct way, the way that true Christians follow?

"For who among false prophets has stood in the council of the Lord to see and to hear His word, or who has paid attention to His word and listened? Behold, the storm of the Lord!... But if they had stood in My council, then they would have proclaimed My words to My people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds." (Jeremiah 23:18-19a, 22).

So does this still hold? Does God promise that if we stand in His council we will hear truth? Ok yes to that question.. but let me ask a better: How do we genuinely stand in His council so that we can make good on this promise to hear truth? I consider myself to be decent at knowing the truly genuine seekers but are they? It's strange to think if so many very logical and intelligent people are so far off from God's ways then just how far off am I? Can I rely on this gut feeling I have to tell me right and wrong as 99% of us do? Here's the thing, my heart's inherantly evil, so no, I cannot rely on my emotions to tell me. Yes, the Spirit's voice can be there, but is that the voice you hear?

"Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord." (vs 23-24). I sometimes wish the "storm of the Lord" (v19) existed as publicly as it did then- it'd be scarier, but I'd have an answer- quick. It just drives me crazy recently to try to wrap my mind around such fantastic people that I know, people that seek God and read the Bible, people that try to be like Christ and yet have views that to me are so different from not only others' but also from the Bible. I know we're fallen, but how can this be?

Huck Finn

I just finished reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn- great book actually. It's one of Mark Twain's crowning achievements how he is able to get away with so many outrageous happenings on account of it being Huck who is the narrator and so therefore they are "his" beliefs coming through in the tale. Anyway, I like the book because I love getting inside Huck's head and seeing how he sees things and feels about them. He isn't very smart or pure and yet seems to outsmart people and come around to do the right thing somehow.

My point: My favorite line of the adventure is this- "It's the little things that smoothes people's roads the most". He doesn't speak the best english, he doesn't always think before he does things and he messes up A LOT, but he realizes that a kindness goes a long way and he chooses to do things that will smooth the road of life for others. So there's your thought for the day!

Tribeless

I read part of a book today that's called The Scalpel and the Silver Bear. The book is about the Navajo people and one such girl's journey between the Navajo and American worlds. She herself was half and half yet in her heart she felt completely Navajo. The story follows her dividedness to college when she spoke of how outcast and ostracized she felt for her native roots. This is what she had to say about her college experience:

"Some years later, reflecting back on my college experiences, I realized something else. Much of the outside, non-Indian world is tribeless, full of wandering singular souls, seeking connection through societies, clubs, and other groups. White people know what it is to be a family, but to be a tribe is something of an altogether different sort. It provides a feeling of inclusion in something larger, of having a set place in the universe where one always belongs. It provides connectedness and a blueprint for how to live. At Darmouth the fraternities and sororities seemed to be attempts to claim or create tribes. Their activities often seemed to be unconscious re-creations of rituals and initiation ceremonies. But the fraternities emphasized exclusion as much as inclusion...I began to honor and cherish my tribal membership, and in the years that followed I came to understand that such membership is central to mental health, to spiritual health, to physical health. A tribe is a community of people connected by blood or heart, by geography and tradition, who help one another and share a belief system. Community and tribe not only reduce the alienation people feel but in doing so stave off illness. In a sense they are a form of preventative medicine. Most Americans have lost their tribal identities."

I think that's one of the big problems in our world. We lost our community, our central beliefs, our inclusion of others. a correctedness for the blueprint on how to live. I think most everyone feels lost in some regard at different points in life and the way to find ourselves is to build life together. The road less traveled is certainly the right path, but that doesn't mean it has to be traveled alone.