Sunday, February 08, 2004

Hanging out at Dennys tonight I overheard the conversation of some guys at the next table. They were talking about that big question mark that hangs over our heads: God.
It seems we know that God is God, but religion presents a problem for us. Who to follow? With the evils of man infused into the religions of the world in one way or another, with the feelings of inadequacy we encounter when faced with the "rules", how can we know the Way?
A few weeks ago I met a man at a gas station; he came to my window to see if he could pump my gas for a few bucks. I declined his assistance, but gave him the two bucks I had on me anyway, along with a little booklet. The lettering on the front asked, "Would you like to know God personally?" He looked at me and sighed.
"Man, I do need to know God."
I felt for him, just as I did for the guys at Dennys, not because I have the answers, but because, even knowing God, I still face some of the same questions.
Well, the crux of the matter: We as humans, it seems, are put here to seek God's face. If that weren't the case, I doubt I'd be able to find the same conversation at a Dennys in suburban La Mirada as I found at a gas station in East Los Angeles. We're engineered to ask questions; that means questions are not only okay--they are us. The questions are answered, one way or another; sometimes by direct response, sometimes by a faith in the parts of God's character that we understand. I think we just need to keep asking them. We can't know all of the story while we are in this world; and as soon as we stop asking the questions, we've settled for a significance that is only as big as the chapters we live here.