Finding Jesus

What does it mean to have a relationship with God? If Jesus was a real, earth-bound person and he's alive today then how do we talk to him? What does it mean to be his friend?

Those are tough questions. I mean, it's easy to give the Sunday School answer. We're all separated from relationship with God because of sin. Jesus had to die for us to deal with that. If we believe in Jesus, accept him as Lord of our lives and ask forgiveness, our sin is instantly and freely forgiven and we become children of God. After that, it's a matter of reading the Bible, praying, learning more about God, growing...

That's the Sunday School answer and that's true. In sensible everyday terms, though, it's messier. We understand what it means to have a relationship with a family member. We know how to interact with a friend when we hang out with them. We can talk and listen, see each other, touch each other, spend time together, take pictures of ourselves, all of those simple things.

How does that translate to this invisible and intangible God that's vaguely everywhere and yet somehow inside us at the same time? We're built to use these five senses of ours and he isn't even as real as the wispy mist at the dawn of day.

It is a tough thing to do and to understand. I would guess that this is one of the main reasons that we like to make these giant rulebooks about Christian life. It's easier to grasp that we should care for the poor, teach little kids Bible stories, avoid swearing and drinking, mature in our personalities and go to a church service every Sunday. That's basic, we can do and see and feel those things. We become reliant on this image of what a Christian should be and we focus on these outward requirements. (Not to condemn action and moral rules, both can be valuable and that's not the point here.)

It's just that Jesus isn't in those things. Jesus is in us. Jesus does talk to us. He does change our hearts, he can affect our emotions, he wants to spend time with us. For me, that sometimes happens when a thought pops into my head. Sometimes it feels like I'm having a conversation with myself. Sometimes I'm praying about an issue, something clicks inside of me, my heart seems to clear and I break down and cry at what Jesus just did for me. Sometimes people come into my life and talk to me, or I read something, or I listen to music, and I later realize that Jesus had something for me there.

Conversely, those things might not be Jesus at all sometimes. I know that thoughts pop into my head randomly for no good reason and I know that Satan likes to tempt me once in a while, too. Sometimes having a conversation with myself really is mano-una-mano. Sometimes I'm crying because of stress or depression and not because of God, even if I thought it was God at the time.

I'm not offering mystical, magical, warm and fuzzy feelings. I'm saying that Jesus is a real person and he does want us to learn how to hear his voice. Jesus does want to lead us everyday. He does want to lead us to new people to help them and he does want to direct us in our conversations. It's not easy to do and it's not easy to explain. It's not even easy to learn or understand. All we can ask is for Jesus to help us in this, to reveal himself to us, to let us learn what his personality is like and how to respond to him each day.

Hey, I'm still figuring this out in a deeper level and I've been a Christian since I was a young 'un. For a long time, I thought that I had it figured out. Only in recent times have I caught a glimpse of what it means to follow Jesus every day and allow him to lead me. Only recently have I seen that my service and ministry and church and rules may be good but they're not Jesus.

What Would Jesus Do? It's a great motivational question. The real question, though, is: Who are you, Jesus? It's personal, a question to him directly. We want him to reveal himself to us in every situation and in every area of our lives. We're not trying to learn about Jesus. We're trying to know Jesus himself, one on one.