Published: 11/05/2014 - Updated: 08/29/2018
I was never attracted to the idea of reading the Bible; I am not attracted to it nor do I feel it necessary. Sometimes I found the Bible in hotels or houses, and if I didn’t have anything else to do, I’d read a few random lines, which, to tell the truth, always seemed boring and convoluted. And yet, the idea of God was always something that attracted me and, in some way, I knew.
What did I know about God?
I knew in some way and to a certain extent what God was. I couldn’t explain it in words because there are some things that can’t always be put into words. But in some way, I understood it. That might be why I never felt God through books, religions, or someone else’s words. I felt it and studied it more deeply in the words that He, in some way, had placed in nature, in the sky, and in silence; in the labors of the day, in household chores. I also read, and continue to read, when I walk, when I see someone laugh or cr, or when I had some sort of problem.
Read God in our daily life
And yet, reading God in life has not been easy. Even though throughout a large portion of the day I felt it, and I could even say that I “read” it, I would sometimes stop to study with great attention and focus, because the word of God is complete nature, it is a loving but demanding teacher, it is a father that teaches us how to be Gods, but in a unique way. A loyal father that inspires us to be creators, but with a language, with words that one has to learn to hear, to feel: to understand.
God communicates and expresses everything in the universe. His word varnishes all creation. And yes, it sounds very poetic and beautiful until suddenly encountering such elemental task as washing the clothes, for example. How can a creative presence of universes and stars be speaking through trivial or simple works like washing clothes, setting the table, listening to children cry and fight, etc? How can God be speaking in this moment? How can his word be in something so trivial, so fleeting and insignificant? What does God want to tell me when I sweep the house or listen to the complaints of those suffering?
It is hard for me to listen sometimes as well. Difficult to understand it, and even interpret it in men that kill and commit atrocities like cutting down trees, destroying forests, contaminating rivers or abusing children. God is in the entire cosmos and his word resounds in everything. So how can it be in an action so vile and miserable? And yet…it’s there. His message does not come through if you are concentrating on listening to the outrage created in reality rather than paying attention to his voice, which is very soft and transparent: silent.
In order to listen to and to read God in daily life, one must know how to do so. This is no easy art, because you have to begin by understanding that God is within everything, within every person, animal, plant, rock, flower, star, etc. God is not separate, nor is he a watchman that has demanding rules that when not followed, receive punishment. God allows and gives. God is a Creator.
See God in yourself
So, how can God me in me if I am lacking, if I have limitations, and if I’m fighting with my landlord? God is a Creator of galaxies and unimaginable places, how is it that he is within me, if I can barely pay the rent? Understanding that God is within you is very complex. If you were to imagine the grandeur and the magnitude of what I’m saying to you, how could it be possible for God to be in me?
Becoming aware of this is definitely a great challenge. It requires understanding and an awakening on consciousness. And that is the first step for beginning to read God in nature, because if you feel separate from your own divine nature, then you will also feel separate from plants and other things, even though you feel appreciation and love for nature and animals. You might not be able to get close to them, nor defend them, because it will be difficult to get into contact with your divine presence in nature and others.
The word God is not “out there”. It sounds in yourself in a very unique way, if you were to simply open up to the connection that exists between yourself and everything that surrounds you. Whenever anyone feels separate from everything and everyone else, it’s almost as if the Bible were separated into little tiny parts and the words were left thrown aside and isolated, meaningless.
Books have been a medium for understanding and reaching God for a long time. Perhaps the new experience of these times is to learn to live it and to listen to it in everything and in all the experiences we live. To judge less and to open our eyes more, to stop rejecting and to open our hearts more, to stop seeing what we want to see and to learn to see what is really there.
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