If there exists a God powerful enough to split open seas and rivers to nudge us safely to the other side, then shouldn't the hundreds of millions of people of faith who recite these stories be able to access that power?
(Yes.)
Both Jews and Christians claim to know this God of the Hebrew scriptures. What good is meditating on those vicious works of majesty — and ultimately, of justice and love — if the stories lie dormant on the page?
When we read the scriptures then nod and say, "Yes, this speaks to my life," we treat them as any other passionate text. Any other blog entry. Any other fleeting thread of imagination.
If that God of the scriptures is the same God whom those scriptures claim, "never changes," then he's still alive. Still mouthing off. Still rumbling, creating, watching. Yelling things from atop mountains and thrones. Sometimes, desperate things. Things such as:
"I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die?"
Unless I can commune personally and privately with the Creator of the Universe who performed those supposed wonders, "religion" means nothing to me. I have little patience for "tradition" or manmade rules or texts edited and interpreted by humans.
I want the meat of him. I want his spirit. I want God to introduce himself.
Then I want to know what it was that he said to Abraham. Moses. Joshua. The others. And WHY. I want to find that God — wherever he's run off to — and beg him to say the same to me.
*
Words from a human who says these are okay things to want — and expect:
"There is something about the way in which God comes upon us, and he says to us, 'I want to go in front of you. You have to let me go in front of you. Because if you let me go in front of you, you will have something to latch on to. Or else you're on your own. You can only latch on to bravery. Or you can only grit your teeth and hope that that action in itself will be okay.'"
"It is the presence of the Lord that is going to open up the River Jordan. Not your jumping in."
"God is not the one who says, 'Jump out there and good luck. See you on the other side.' No. God is the God who says, 'I'm with you. And I want you to the feel the weight of my presence even more than the weight of the situation.'"
I think I will sit still for a little while now.
