4 E-Z Ways to Deepen Your Relationship with God/The Big Spirit . . . John ShoreFrequently I share with my friends (you’re one of them) the writings of a good friend of mine, John Shore. I appreciate his straightforward, often out-of-the-box, irreverent forms (to some) of non-traditional ways of saying something. One has to appreciate that John lives in Southern California amongst modern day thinkers . . .their jargon is one that God and John understand. Was it Paul who said ‘we should become all things to all men…in order to win some’ ?
“He-e-e-re’s John” . . .
“The more we make our lives about ourselves, the more unhappy we become. That’s the law of human life, and none of us gets to break it.
It’s all about our relationship to the one God . . . or Mr.Big (as some prefer to call him.) Unfortunately, we’re also designed to survive — which in large part, and certainly often in an immediate sense, means being all about ourselves.
And there in a nutshell is the whole of the human dilemma: We are ever torn between selfishness and altruism, greed and benevolence, taking and giving, indulgence and balance, good and bad, darkness and light — and on and on and on.
Torn between opposites. That’s who we are.
Well, for those times when you’re in the mood for a little Divine Interaction, may I suggest the following four E-Z things to do? They’re simple, but they work, and always have. In describing them I will use the ultra-generic term “God,” so that at the very least I don’t have to sprain my fingers typing. To put on the whole matter a more … teleological (“the doctrine of design and purpose in the material world,” says my online “American Heritage” dictionary) emphasis, let me also say that I personally believe that God is constantly and forever waiting for everyone and anyone to simply ask how they can deepen their personal relationship with him. God has a lot of answers, but for that particular question, he really has an answer. And if you sincerely and deeply ask God what you should do in order to enrich your relationship with him, what you are certain to in one way or another very clearly hear him communicating back to you is that you would do very well indeed to begin incorporating into your daily life the following four things:
1. Listening to God
2. Reflecting upon God
3. Being humble before God
4. Trusting God
Listening to God. Listening to God doesn’t mean you have to climb to the top of a mountain and lose yourself in prayerful bliss, or kneel in a place of worship for six hours straight, or anything like that. It only means that every once in a while — while you’re cooking, cleaning, standing in line at the bank, walking your dog, whatever — you should simply try to open yourself up to listening to the God (which we Christians know as the Holy Spirit) within you. God is never not talking to you. Just give a listen once (or twice, or thrice) in a while. Trust that you will be extremely interested in everything God has to say to you. The more you listen to God, the more you’ll want to listen to what is, after all, a voice that’s as close to you — and is as much about you — as any can possibly be.
Reflecting upon God. This is about the easiest thing in the world to do. God is everywhere manifested: in all nature; in all people; in all the shapes, forms, colors, textures. God exists in every moment of your perceived experience. Or just look into the depths of your own self: There he is! Reflect upon Him. Use the fact of the divine, immediate reality of God to lift you into the kind of grand, passive contemplation that is, after all, one of the richest, sweetest experiences available to anyone.
Being humble before God. ….means you don’t know nothin’, and will be dead before you know it. Be still with that for a while. Appreciate it. Let it grow within you. Let it (your smallness, His Largeness) overwhelm you. Let it drop you to your knees.
Trusting God. In those three simple words lie the key to the best, richest, most rewarding life possible. It’s hard to elaborate on so perfect a phrase. Trust in God. Do it. Every once in a while — especially if you know that it’s been a while — stop whatever you’re doing, and hold in your mind and heart the fact that the entirety of everything you ever worry about is in the hands of God, and that everything about you and your world that He does, he does so, that ultimately you will know the peace of his abiding presence. It has never been any different, and never will be: God loves you, and you can trust him. Stop, sometimes, to relax into that amazing truth, and to rejoice around it. (Note: the more abstract your notion of God/The Divine/The Big Truth, the more difficult it will be for you to do this one.)
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