Conversation

All love begins in conversation.  If we have no communication with someone, it is impossible for us to love that person, except in some generic way:  I love all people because they are people.  But communion, spirit to spirit, results in a different kind of love-- a love that engenders laughter, comfort, and understanding.

That is why it is so important for us to know God as Person, rather than as some generic idea of "God," whatever that might mean to us.  For conversation can occur only between persons; there can be no communion -- Spirit to spirit -- between individuals and energy, for example.  And therefore, there can be no exchange of love, except between persons.

From the beginning, God has desired to communicate with us so that we know Him, not just know "about" Him.  He wants, no -- hungers -- for laughter, comfort, and understanding with us, spirit to Spirit.  Without that exchange of love, real love, I find it impossible to love my neighbor also, as we are commanded to do.  For it is God's love for me, and in me, that overflows to love of my neighbor.

The Bible is not a book of commands and rules so much as it is a book of stories.  It is a book of persons -- the Person of God meeting and greeting a person of man.  It is the stories of saints and sinners who met God "on their way" and "in their way:"  Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, kings and prophets, men and women, even children like Samuel.  In the New Testament, He walks right up to people and says, "Follow Me;" even after He rises from the earth, He will continue to appear in light to individual men and women like Saul of Tarsus.  And always, He initiates the conversation that continues to the end of time and eternity.

God wants to communicate with us even more than we want to speak with Him.  He wants to warn us of danger, teach us what is good and holy, guide us into good paths, and make of us a blessing on the earth.  Eventually, every one of us will be either a blessing or a curse on this planet.  If we allow God to guide us, if we allow His Spirit to speak to us, and flow through us, we cannot help but be a blessing to those around us.  If we insist that we can do it without His guidance, His conversation with us, then our own energy, for good or for evil, is all that we have.

God's conversation with us blesses us: "For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future..." (Jer. 29:11).  And it blesses others as well.  If we receive direction from the Lord and follow it, it always leads to joy and prosperity of our souls and bodies. 

God promised to lead the Israelites to a "land overflowing with milk and honey."  Will He promise us any less?  I think we can trust Him to do good for us always.  How do we begin the conversation?  If we desire to communicate with Him, it is because He has already begun to communicate with us.  All we need do is to open our hearts to listen, to dwell in His Presence to us, and the conversation begins.