My first encounter with the divine (Part 1)
I was thinking the other day about my Facebook friends… I was about to post another meditative content, but then I paused and honestly wondered if they were not tired of me sharing about God so often. And that’s how the idea of an article that would explain why I am “like that ” was conceived (to be born only now, several weeks later).
Okay I Admit, I Love God.
I have a “little” passion for this Entity who created all the beauty that we can still see on Earth. The splendid waterfalls! The majestic trees! The beautiful mountains😍-my fav! (Well… after the blue morning sky😍!). Not to mention the different flavors of fruits which are respectfully handed to us, wrapped in their skin. My eyes enjoy the random art on butterflies’ wings, on animals’ fur, the different shapes and colors of flowers. Every tiny detail has been scripted in their genes, according to their mating. Can your eyes get enough of all these natural wonders? Mine just can’t, and I’d so love to see even more!
God is the Source of everything beautiful that we can still see around us; even in people, both outwardly and inwardly. Just looking at nature, I remember the first acknowledgement I ever had, as a teenager, for the one that had designed and created all this, was that He was certainly very GREAT.
It was obvious to me that we, humans, didn’t place these marvels here. In fact, we travel around the globe to feed our eyes and our souls with the personal knowledge of discovering them! That always led me to look up higher: how great their Creator must be! Realizing that He was also our creator, as human beings, I kinda wanted to meet Him… I desired to have one and one conversations with God, “the Creator of the universe, Sculptor of the Swiss Alps, Maker of the Canadian Rockies, Artist of the Grand Canyon, Designer of Victoria Falls, and the Watercolor Painter of the Great Barrier Reef” (as described by Esther Burroughs) because all these, God was already cool and awesome to me.
Who Else Wishes There Was a Sort of Guided Tour to See the Whole Universe?🙋♀️
This admiration for the Creator led me to be passionate about Life itself here on Earth. I’d love to see it all; from the different cultures, different smiles, foreign mountains, terrific cliffs, to that dark matter high up above our heads in the sky at night, and the stars within it.
Thinking about this Supreme Being expands one’s imagination and makes you appreciate all sciences. At least, it does that for me. It’s like, once you can acknowledge Him, everything becomes “figureoutable” (borrowing Maria Forleo’s famous word). When you think about God, everything seems possible somehow, time traveling, probing the oceans’ depths, improving things on Earth, just anything.
God, the Universe, and the Confusion.
Some call God “the Universe”, but I believe that He created the universe, -if not many of them, “the Multiverse”, who knows? 🤷♀️!
Anyway, I believe that these huge systems of space and time (the universe), containing planets, stars, galaxies, all forms of matter and energy, are functioning according to universal laws created and set by the Mastermind behind it all: God. Therefore I will not confuse the Creator with His creation by calling them interchangeably. God is also a Person, he has feelings, people. Actually, that’s only why we also have feelings. ‘Cause He created us humans, from Himself, based on His own image.
Also think about it: how far greater is a painter compared to his painting?Consider all those dimensions coming between them. Can you imagine? The same way, starting to acknowledge the greatness of God, through the universe and all the beauty around us is mind-blowing! But still that is not what fuels my passion for Him.
Nothing To See With Religion Either
Someone once told me that because I was raised in a Christian family, it’s like I fell into the cauldron as a baby (ever heard of Obelix?) so that would explain why the “potion effect” is constantly active in me. Well, well… This couldn’t be more wrong!
Primo, being born in a Christian setting means little when you consider that, at any given point, people can choose to reject or embrace what they’ve been told growing up.
Secundo, I’m still not sure if having a relationship with God has ever been about being a Christian, to begin with. “Well Abi, it’s only through Christianism that you get to experience a relationship with God”. False. It’s only through Jesus-Christ that you get to experience a relationship with God. It’s always about a person, not a religion.
Yes, Christianism is the only religion known to share the teachings of Jesus-Christ, and therefore, through Christianism, many -including myself- get informed about the spiritual need to have a personal relationship with God; but, just like any other religion, IT CANNOT GIVE IT. Only one person gives a relationship with God: the one appointed by God, Jesus-Christ his son, the Messiah, the presently alive Savior.
Look, it’s possible to have been a Christian all your life and have never met Him personally. To be safe/saved, it doesn’t take for us to be in Christianity. It takes having a personal relationship with Jesus-Christ. It takes Jesus-Christ showing up to our lives, and us accepting Him, believing Him, and following and obeying Him. I’ve seen muslims encounter Jesus-Christ, staying in Islamic communities just to win other muslims for Jesus-Christ through teaching them godly principles. I’ve also known of missionaries going to communities that practice Hinduism, and the missionaries would adopt some of their cultural ways but their goals are clear: win souls for Christ, have some Hindu people enter God’s Kingdom, having them to become God’s sons and daughters through Christ.
Relationships are living things between people; they are personal.
What usually happens after you first hear about Jesus, is that you might go to a Christian church or community, to learn more about Him. And I’m thankful for Christian communities, but that is only because no other religion publicly claims and endorses Jesus-Christ. But mind you, not all Christian churches may quench your thirst for knowing Jesus spiritually. It will always take Jesus, His Person, His Spirit there, for the community to spiritually take care of you. Because He takes care of us through people having His Spirit. Not through religion, not through programs, not through a Christian tag, but through His people, His Church (His immaterial Body formed by His People). Because, again, it’s about one person and how we relate to Him; one person and how this community relates to Him as a group; it’s about one person, and your relationship with Him. My question now is: are all Christians automatically following Christ? 👀!
It’s possible that many are simply caught up with a lot of Christian programs and activities, practicing all the socio-religious rituals, behaviors, and vocabularies adopted among Christians, and have never spiritually related to God once. It’s possible to be an earnest religious Christian for a whole lifetime, well known multitasker deacon, priest, pastor, pope, “Dorcas lady“, nun, Sunday school teacher, and never have been born again. That is very possible, because a relationship is a living link between you and someone else. It’s possible to talk about someone all your life and never have related with that person once. Which would be a very terrible thing, regarding Jesus.
I pray that never be our story, and it’s not too late to ask Him right now: “Lord Jesus-Christ, I need a personal relationship with you. Make me truly yours. Please be my Saviour and my Lord, teach me. I decide to trust you. Amen“. If you need some time, please take it right now and talk to Jesus, with these words or your owns, right now. He listens, even to the words from your heart.
Relationship vs Religion…ship (probably not a word, but I couldn’t resist)
We, humans, create religions in our human (fleshy) effort to perform in order to win a connection with the divine (or to look like we do). By doing this, we directly reject that God came to us already. We reject that through Jesus of Nazareth, God did all that was necessary for our reconciliation and connection with Him. He only asks us now to trust and follow Him. Following His Spirit, we will still accomplish (perform) things -in fact, Jesus said that those who follow Him will do greater than He did- but that will be because we’re following His lead, listening to His guidance first, then obeying. Not because we initiate anything, out of our intellectual and religious effort, but because He drew us, led us, so we did things through His own grace (ability, favor, competence) in us. The first type of doing is vanity and is dead spiritually since originated in us and sustained by our own efforts. The latter type of doing gives life, since originated by the Spirit of life, only performed through us, so we have no real credit.
So, do religions save? Nope! None of them. One person saves: his name is Jesus-Christ, the Son of God. And the way to get save: talk/pray to Him, relate to Him, seek to know Him, trust Him, He’s the one drawing you closer anyway.
Do religions matter to God? I don’t think so, but since it’s something humans tend to do (remember, religion is about our deeds, what we do to win God’s attention) the Bible does talk about what could be a pure religion before God in James 1: 26-27, but still, this doesn’t save. However, what I know for sure is that all the people inside of all the religions matter deeply to God. He loves them all and wants them all to be saved and to be translated from the Kingdom of darkness to His Kingdom. And again His own and only appointed way: His son, aka, Jesus-Christ.
At the End of the Day, only Two Kingdoms Define the Whole Humanity
While we see ourselves divided between so many religions, fighting and claiming this one (generally ours) is better than those others, God sees all of us humanity divided just between two Kingdoms (Matthew 12:26-28). Therefore, the question I should ask myself is not “what religion do I practice?”, but “to which spiritual Kingdom do I belong?“. All in all, it’s believing a lie to think there are many ways to God. There’s just one way to God and to His Kingdom, and (again) it’s not a religion. It is the One Person to ever say: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”, Jesus-Christ, the son of God (John 14:6). I mean… who ever talked like that…? Why aren’t we paying extremely great attention to prove this person and find out?
Back to that “Obelix and the potion” perspective about being raise in religious setting
Tertio, another reason why this perspective doesn’t work is that, through religions, a generation may enforce opinions on another as if these were divine orders. The contrast is that, divine orders are eternal principles. They are universal laws, therefore unshakable. They make sense through all ages, because they are pure TRUTH. On the contrary, opinions and personal beliefs may change and adjust with time. Nonetheless, they still can be enforced through religious fear, control and shaming. When opinions are not based upon Godly principles, they won’t be able to naturally sustain nor remain by themselves. Consequently, people eventually wake up feeling deceived, and attribute the deception directly to the God whom these religious authorities claim to represent when they were establishing their tradition or opinion as His norm. In the Bible, we get to see Paul making sure to clarify whether he was sharing an opinion or giving an advice, or sharing God’s insight on a matter (1 Corinthians 7:12). Wise leaders, who fear God and trust Jesus as their Lord, still do the same.
Quick Story
When I was a child, I remember some peers and I used to be very annoyed by so many religious rules that we were forced to follow to “please God”, but these rules could never make sense to us, nor seem to help us grow closer to God. As for me, they seemed to exist only to embarrass me as a little girl and teenager. I couldn’t wait for the moment to grow and be “out there”, making my own decisions out of my own proven convictions.
The shame I felt when I had to join an excursion wearing a long jean skirt! Apparently “God” didn’t want women to wear pants. Of course, it was nothing more than a traditional outdated belief. I would often debate with my family:
“Please, show me where it says pants. It says that God doesn’t like men wearing women’s clothing, or women wearing men’s clothing. And I’m okay with that: I’m not asking for any boy’s pants! There are pants for girls and pants for boys! In Jesus’ time, wasn’t everybody wearing tunics? But there surely were robes for men and robes for women. Besides, why would God have a personal problem with me wearing pants? He certainly knows that I am technically safer in pants, as a girl!”.
In vain. No matter how much sense I thought I was making, I still had to wear that long jean skirt to go hiking. The funny thing is that, in my misery, I still felt better off than some peers who were forbidden to wear jewelry, could not enjoy their hair out, or have lips gloss on, for the same so-called godly reasons. Unless God personally instructs you not to do something that normally is not a sin, those public limitations are not godly, they are simply religious (Colossians 2: 8, 16-18, 20-23).
Religion would have separated me from God after it told me about Him.
I realized early as a teenager that most people weren’t really respecting themselves, nor the God they were talking about, more than they feared key-people’s superficial view of them.
I think that I stopped taking some of these meetings seriously. I kept attending only because of my parents (as long as I was living under their roof, it was clear to me that I had no choice); but also because some of my friends would be there. We would manage to have fun anyhow, even at the risk of being “disciplined” at home for having talked too much or for having chosen any other creative ways to escape boredom. We couldn’t fall asleep either. Little pinches from our mothers would wake us up every single time; their children couldn’t be seen sleeping. Our communities were trying hard to hem us in, but the methods weren’t the best, and they couldn’t catch up with our teenage realities.
However, I am very thankful for my background
I am thankful for my background, since, growing up on the path that God saw for me, there was no better place to inform me overall about Him, and about what’s in the famous old book that talks about Him, the Bible. These painful little pinches keeping me awake, helped me soak in biblical stories and historical facts even when I wasn’t paying much attention to the speaker. Just the fact of being present, my ears were exposed to what was being said. I was repeatedly forced to stay awake throughout all the meetings (a torture for a sleepy bored child). Nevertheless, that was enough for information to get in.
Therefore, I heard over and over about the existence of the Creator, the ultimate Source that we all refer to as God. I heard about Jesus, God’s son who came on Earth to do the human experience in flesh and bones. I also was told that Jesus’ mission was to die and go to hell to pay the price of sin for humanity, so that those who trust in Him would not go there anymore. After Jesus did all this, God raised Him back to eternal and ultimate quality of life and ranked His name higher than any other existing names on and beyond Earth, in all the universe. Then after Jesus-Christ resurrected, He showed up in a brand new and powerful body (that could pass through walls and do other unbelievable tricks, such that He had to convince His disciples that He was not a ghost. “Look at my hands and my feet, he said to his disciples. Touch me (…); a ghost does not have a body like this”, Luke 24:39, Easy-To-Read Version). Finally, I was also told that, upon leaving Earth, Jesus promised to release His Spirit to those who would believe in Him, birthing them anew to empower them to do His will on Earth, and represent God, standing for what is right in God’s eyes. I was told that the ultimate goal of God is to restore Earth to its most beautiful and prosperous state, and make it look like the atmosphere ruling in Heaven. A place where evil is nowhere to be found, as everything operates in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Growing up, I heard that story over and over. But I was in no rush to decide if I would believe it or not. The story and I simply coexisted alongside each other. The idea of an existing God was not particularly bothering me. That could always be as possible as the fact that I actually had no particular reason to mind it.
Also, for me, I was just being told stuff. I did not know for sure. However, I could always see that this God was very real to my parents. My parents prayed, not religiously, reciting mimetically, but like addressing someone real. I’ve seen them praying and trusting God for real life issues. I respected that. Somehow, I even felt protected by their faith and prayers. It never seemed to require me to have any faith on my own.
But that was until I found myself on a bus going alone (which means, without my parents and their faith around) to Borel, a city in the countryside, where my elders, the young adults of the community, organized a retreat during one carnival season.
We were going to be there for three (3) days, far away from society…