To Find God

   “God can’t be seen or heard in anything of this world.  We must enter darkness and silence to find Him.”  (Thomas Merton, “New Seeds of Contemplation”)

   If we are to find God we must at some point reject all things of this world and focus on the next.  God isn’t visible to us and what many point to as evidence of Him is just that, evidence, not God Himself. 

   We gaze at the skies and wonder at the majesty of the universe God has created but the universe is not God, only a creation.  We look at the beauty of our world and say we see God’s presence in all.  But God isn’t truly present in these things.  He is evident in them and we see signs of Him in all these things but still they are only creations, not God.

   The world around us masks God in so many ways.  The pride and envy we experience in ourselves and others hide Him from us.  The hate and injustice we practice silences His voice in us.  Through our sinfulness we have sentenced ourselves to shadows and whispers of God in this life.  We can only hope to find Him and know Him in eternal life.

  For me removing myself from this world, if only for a short period, is the closest I can come to finding and knowing God.  Even then, He is beyond human understanding, but I can come closer to God and begin to know Him when I am focused most deeply upon Him.

   Blocking out worldly concerns and entering the darkness and silence of our soul is not easily achieved, but it is my way of coming closest to my God.  I need the silence and aloneness of contemplation.  I need to get away from everything and everyone for a period, clear my mind, and allow God to enter.  Even then the world intrudes; it’s almost impossible to be completely alone and silence is rare.  I continue the effort because the closer I can come to achieving silence and aloneness the closer I can come to God.

   This world is a sham, broken by sin and destined to pass away.  The quiet and isolation of contemplation helps me find God.  This is my way but not the only way for people to turn to God.  Find the one that works best for you and begin to know Him.