God calls each and every one of us to Him, but it is up to us and our free will to respond. It seems to me, though, that this call can appeal to us in one of three ways…..
The first is through an obedience to tradition – faith as passed on from those that came before. Some view this in a negative light, as if being born into the faith isn’t legitimate without a “born again” experience. Personally, though, I find such beauty in the idea of the seeds of faith being sowed in the youngest members of a community, and growing in a nurturing environment to blossom and bear fruit. A person knows God because God as always BEEN THERE – there has never been a day, a time, when God was not a part of their existence, and they accept that implicitly. “Teach a child in the way he should go, and He will not stray from it.” As G.K. Chesterton wrote – “there are two ways to get home, and one of them is to stay there.” The danger here lies only in the chance that faith never rises above “religion” (not that religion is a negative word, as it’s often portrayed) – or more accurately “ritual” and “culture”. Christianity is NOT a heritage, as one might claim to be an Italian, or bear the mark of a familial Roman nose. There is a Christian heritage, a Christian culture, but it is not what being “Christian” IS. Being a Christian implies an active faith, an active relationship both with our God and a community of believers (“Where two or more are gathered in my name, so also will I be”). God seeks us on a deeper level, and at some point – be it in small increments over time too gradual to pinpoint, or in jumps and starts in some dramatic, definitive way – that heritage of faith needs to be owned for yourself. Not because it was what you were taught by those around you, but because you believe it for yourself. And that’s where the two other means come into play.
Whether you start inside or outside a faith tradition, God "knocks at our door" in two ways: through our heads, or through our hearts. Logic or emotion. We often seem to be called in the way that most resonates with our personality (who WE are), but in reality, we are called based on who GOD is. God is love, He is not merely loving. God is the Word, logos, logic. He is not merely logical. Love and Reason. That is God.
For the thinkers among us, God calls us to Himself through logic. He plagues us with questions, planting a desire for answers. “Why are we here? How did we come to be? How do we reconcile science with faith? Who was Jesus historically, and what evidence, what documents, support his existence?” Reason can point us in the direction, put us on the path to truth, if we step back far enough to gain perspective. It is undeniable that Jesus and His followers existed. We know from outside sources (or “hostile witnesses” if you will) that Jesus performed unexplainable feats deemed “miracles” or “magic” even by skeptics. Our reason tells us then that we can either believe one of two things: Jesus is the Son of God that He claims to be, or He is a madman. Our logic can take us right to the foot of Jesus, but then it leaves us there. The last final step, the “conclusive proof”, the scientific certainty, cannot be. The last step is the leap of faith that takes us from the miracle worker or the madman, to the divinity of Christ. Where science ends, God begins. This also makes logical sense. Science is an understanding of our existence. We can comprehend only those things that are finite, that fit inside our brain. How can we possibly understand the infinite? If God is greater, then there is no way we can begin to completely understand – we can only attempt a glimpse. Science can tell us only the “how”, but not the “why” or “by whom”. In the end, we have faith. But it is not a blind faith, or an illogical faith. Because God is neither blind nor illogical.
Others find their way to God through their need, their desire, through their heart. The idea of God fulfills a longing placed there by the very Creator who can be the only one to fill it. We have a “God”-sized hole in our heart. It is a universal human desire to be loved. It sets us apart from mere animals. A dog might desire affection from it’s master, but it’s a need that’s fulfilled with a pat here and there, a thrown ball now and then. Humans desire to be LOVED perfectly, completely. Evolution has no means of explaining that uniquely human desire. As part of being human, we inherently know that there is a perfection SOMEWHERE, and our existence falls short of it. It is the reason we call out in despair “Jesus, I need you. Heal me.” And He responds. Often, this lends itself to a dramatic conversion experience, what some evangelicals might call being “born again”. But we must not fail to note that being “born again” in the Bible was explicitly referring to baptism, and not to an emotional conversion experience. One must be born of the water and the spirit. It seems to me that this way to faith, this emotional need or desire, is a means very much rooted in the present, the “here and now”. It runs the risk of losing all perspective and grounding, as emotions are volatile and subject to change.
Whichever path leads you to the Father, the important fact is only that you GET THERE. It’s evident, though, that one cannot exist without the other. Complete rationality cannot explain the magnanimous agape, the all-encompassing love our Creator has for us, and desires us to spill out to our fellow brothers. Emotion when not tempered with logic loses it’s theology and orthodoxy – the grounding which keeps us straying from the truth.
God draws us to Him, through Himself, love and logic. In a much more concrete sense, God drew all humanity to Himself in the physical embodiment of that self -- in the person of Jesus Christ.
