Pastoral Psychology and the Heart 05

If you filled your memory with the knowledge about God, you would still not know Him.

If you explored the entire universe and could analyze every detail, and all cause and effect, you would still not know reality. If you could artificially create life in a laboratory, you would still not understand living. All of that would be meaningless if you didn’t get to know Creation as a person. But if you really got to know Creation as God intended for us, even in this fallen existence, you would understand life and living better than anyone who had all the factual knowledge about the universe, and the technology to manipulate matter. That person would still die without a clue about what really mattered, while you could in theory skip death and go Home to be with the Creator.

We know of at least two individuals who did not die — Enoch and Elijah — and we suspect Moses didn’t pass like most people. Yes, it is possible to become so totally led by faith in this life that God will simply take you out of this world and your body will be translated directly. If “ambition” is the right word, then that would be ours. But of course, ambition as normally understood is a disqualifying moral attribute.

It’s not that we do nothing in serving Christ, but that all of what we could do is not really the point. We choose what to do because of who we are in Him. Questions of being and doing are impertinent; it’s a question of playing the role for which God made you. Who are you?

If you and I had an acquaintance in common, we could talk about the person and both recognize him/her in each other’s description of our encounters with them. Most people are fairly consistent, even when our roles in that person’s life, and vice versa, varied widely. At the very least, most of us could describe visible features to be sure we are talking about the same person. And if it turns out we are both on friendly terms with this person, it’s hard to imagine how we wouldn’t have some common experiences with him/her.

That’s how it is with God and His Creation. Even though we know for certain God treats no two of us exactly alike, we would still both know Him as God. Reality is the same way. No two of us have the exact same experience or impressions about reality, though our experiences are bound to overlap some. We should be surprised if reality treated any two of us exactly alike, because that’s how people act.

One of the biggest impediments in building a community of faith is the damned nonsense about fairness and equality. In the current Western mythology in America we suffer from extremists who insist that no one gain any advantage at all for any reason. Fairness in that sense equates to taking away anything anyone has gained that isn’t available to everyone. What this mythology actually brings us is a net loss; everyone will suffer equally and nobody has any joy. The biblical culture teaches us the very opposite lesson: Everyone has something special from God that makes them unique. If you are wise in the ways of moral wisdom, you can see how it all balances out in the long run. Everyone gets God’s individual attention, and it works the same with all of Creation.

As long as you are seeking fairness, God cannot and will not help you much. You need to get to know Him individually. You will surely experience things not even mentioned in the Bible, and you will forge an interaction with Him that establishes beyond all doubt that He loves you.

We often hear the admonition to not take things personally. Not everything is about you. That’s a good reminder in most cases, but it steps past the real issue that all of Creation wants a good friendship with you. Instead of demanding everyone come to you and bow at the shrine, broaden your ego to make room for people to comfortably participate in your life, to be blessed by the power of God thundering in your soul.

In that sense, everything is personal.