“It is an honor to meet you. What does “God” mean to you? I’m curious :)”

A question from Jack Saunsea.  I know Jack from way back (in bloggy years that is about two years ago).

And around the same time I remember being asked that same question in a “programme” in church: “Who is God?”  My response then was “Are you mad?” Because the best minds have for millenia attempted to answer that very same question without much success.

So as I read Jack’s question, I shrank a little.  My default position: retreat inside and shut the door.  Yet my God immediately said this: “You know who I am, why the reticence?”

You know who I am.

Indeed I do. My God has taken me on the journey of a lifetime – my lifetime. A journey without end. A journey of freedom. A journey as bright and fresh today as it was before I even realised I was journeying.

I know my God because my God lives within. I know my God – not through study or work or duty or sacrifice. I know my God because we live together. I know my God because I am becoming Him and He had always been me. I know my God as Love.

Just like the 007 franchise: “The name’s Bond. James Bond.” – so too my God: “The name’s Love. Unconditional Love.”

My journey is in Love with Love of Love and to Love. That is what my God means to me. And He kind of rubs off a little. I absorb that Love a little. I shed a lot of the angst and stress of being the Me I think I should Be – and becoming the Me I was always Intended to Be. That is liberating. Empowering. Enlightening.

My God saw what I did not.

Jack’s question was NOT about the definitive “Who is God?” and “What is God?” Jack’s question was “Who is YOUR God Paul?” Jack’s question was “What does MY God mean to me?”

And when I miss that personalisation, I think I miss God. I think we all miss God when we miss that.  I think we miss the very relationship He desires and we desire (so long as it is after we die). I think that when we each miss the “MY” God – we miss the point completely.

“You know who I am.” Indeed I do.

So why my “default reticence” as I read Jack’s question?  Very simply this: you might disagree with me.  And I might look silly.

(And that was wrapped up in a much more admirable explanation – my “default” explanation:

When I tell you who God is (and who God is not) I get in the way of your God. When my God becomes “the God” I get in the way of your God. And when you do that to me – you get in the way of my God.)

The truth is much simpler: I might look silly.  But …

I think that is because we all confuse “my God” with “GOD”. I think we all worry that we make “our God” – “The Only God” (because there can only be one God – right?). I think we confuse “relationship” with a “dictionary definition” – we distance God from relationship.  I think we often prefer to define and refine – rather than love and love more.

“You know who I am.”

That is what (my) God means to me.

Thank you Jack. I never realised my God was that simple!

(by the way – Jack is a traveller as well.  A traveller I enjoy.  A traveller who is “who he was always intended to be”.  You might enjoy his journeying too.)