Theologian Mark Bowness used to look for God in church. Then he discovered evidence of the creator in ordinary, everyday events.
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I would stand on the church pulpit, dressed in my Sunday best, with the congregation staring up at me, and say, “Let us pray…”
It was how I started every sermon that I preached. It was slowly dawning upon me that despite having a degree in theology, irrespective of my church leader status and regardless of being a published Christian author, I didn’t really know God at all.
The more I claimed to have a relationship with the Almighty, the more I felt a fraud. That Sunday morning, feeling disconnected with the divine, I walked out of an archaic Church building and vowed to find God. My search was not focused upon encountering the creator through rituals and religion but through his creation. I want to share with you 7 ways you can meet your maker without going to church.
1. Savour your surroundings
Have you ever looked up into the night sky lost in wonder at the vastness of the Universe? Have you ever lost your breath as you gaze at the beauty of the setting sun? Have you ever dived deep into the blue sea only to be met the most dazzling array of colours as fish of every shape and size?
The first time I truly met God was by standing on a beach in Fiji with the sun beating down on my back and nothing but the deep blue sea that met the horizon. Right then I knew that we are each called to be a care-taker of a land that has been so tenderly and lovingly made. For the first time I could see God, all around me.
Next time you walk through creation, allow yourself to stand in awe at the works of God.
2. Meeting through the music
I had messed up. I had let everyone down. I was sitting in my bedroom when all of a sudden the words of Richard’s Marx’s song Waiting for you came gently through the radio. “Wherever you go, whatever you do I will be right here waiting for you. Whatever it takes, or how my heart breaks I will be right here waiting for you.” This moment was one of the most intense of my life. God was using the lyrics of Marx to speak directly to me, to encourage me that it does not matter how many times I mess up and get things wrong, God will always be there waiting for me.
Want to meet with God? Turn on the radio and open your mind to the voice of God speaking to you, loud and clear, speaking into your situation and sharing wisdom through the words that you hear.
3. The gift of giving
I will never forget the time I bumped into a young woman in a pub with her four-year-old son. It was getting late and this lady explained to me that her husband had kicked her out and she had nowhere to stay. I could not bear to see these two people homeless for the night and so I invited them to stay in my spare room. A week later I received a letter from the husband of this lady. In it, he explained they thought they had come to the end of their relationship but my help felt to them as if an angel had been sent in the midst of their pain—they decided to give their marriage another go.
If you really want to meet with God, give.
4. The words of a stranger
I will never forget the moment that a stranger ran up to me in the street and simply said, “Look, I have to tell you this, it is all going to be okay.” Slightly puzzled I replied, “What do you mean?” Again this stranger responded, “I saw you walking through town, your head bowed low, a look of frustration on your face and I just want you to know that whatever is making you unhappy right now, it will pass – everything will be fine.”
There are times in our lives that strangers say the strangest things to us, we shrug them off and we assume that they are crazy. What if, the next time a stranger uttered a few words to you, you accepted these words as being from the mouth of God?
5. Through all that you have
You are healthy. You have family, friends and loved ones around you. You are living under a roof. You are able to enjoy eating the most beautiful of foods. Despite the fact that you can be fixated on all that you haven’t got. You are blessed by God because you have everything that you will ever need.
Have you ever seriously lacked or gone without need, I doubt it. Why? Because God always ensures that his children receives his precious gifts. Want to meet with God? Meet with him in the moment of appreciating all that you have.
6. An openness to oneness
Everything is connected. We are all human beings living on the same planet. No matter where we are in the world, we gaze into the night sky and enjoy the beauty of the same stars. The animals around us are simply co-inhabitants of this earth. We are all born and we all die. We are all one.
I find it totally awe inspiring that I am so insignificant on planet earth both in the here and now and in comparison to millions of people who have existed throughout the generations. And yet, I am so important, so special and so unique – God made both you and I this way.
7. By ending the unending questions
How could Moses have parted the Red Sea? How could Mary have had a virgin birth? Did Jesus really die on the cross and somehow “rise again?” As a church leader I was not only asked these questions but I also asked them myself, time and time again. It was only when I walked away from the church and indeed religion did I recognise this important truth: God is infinite. God’s creation is finite. In other words, it is totally impossible for the created to grasp the mind of its creator.
When I ended the unending questions I ceased trying to understand God with my mind and in doing so I met God, in my heart. I started to live my life by faith, by intuition, by loving and giving and in this way God was truly revealed to me.
To think that you can only meet God in a church, temple or synagogue (or any “house of worhsip”) is to deny yourself of the opportunity to transform your life in the beautiful, simplest and most human things. Go meet with God. I dare you.
Photo: Flickr/Stockerre
Thank you