Why Bother Getting to Know About God?

Tonight, as I was relaxing and listening to a beautiful trumpet rendition of the music of praise titled "Great is Thy Faithfulness", I reflected on a very difficult question posed to me several times by my friend who at the age of forty-one is only beginning to learn about God and the concept of the soul. My experiences with this friend (whom God has lead me to), has humbled me (a good thing) and my initially lofty aspirations concerning getting this friend to understand and truly know God.

The question is this - What benefit is it to know and love God for those in this world who are "successful", "happy" and "fulfilled" and who have attained such existence without the benefit of ever having heard of God or contemplated such a Being that is imaginary and difficult to even begin to sense?

It certainly is not within my mental capacity nor is it my place to make an assessment as to the whether such individuals are indeed in a state of a happy and fulfilled existence. And so, if such an existence is indeed presumed to be true for such individuals who are foreign to the concept of a loving God, what then indeed is the benefit to them to consider the truth about God and His love? For such people, I am inclined to just leave well enough alone. After all, why "fix" that which is not broken?

Well, dear brothers and sisters, our loving God has enlightened my mind as this very moment with the answer to this question. As with all things great and true the answer is quite simple. All human beings seek love...we all seek and crave for unconditional love from others. It is ultimately what drives our activities and we are in a constant state of seeking because we seek this from our fellow human beings. However, our repeated disappointments with the reliability and longevity of love from our fellow human beings teaches us the limitations inherent in such love which is imperfect and oftentimes influenced by selfish human nature.

Here therefore is the potential benefit of getting to know about God - it is only with the unconditional and ever faithful love of God for us that our spiritual hunger and cravings for true love is ultimately satisfied and fulfilled. Only when I observe the love of God and the love for God strong in a person's life can I truly to come conclude that he/she is indeed living a happy and fulfilled existence.

As we teach the love of God to others, it is helpful to be mindful of the reality that a novice in the faith will be more inspired to learn to sense an imaginary being like God only if they can sense some amount of inner peace and tranquility in our own lives that manifests the love of God for us and our love for God.

The unconditional love that we try to give them (those whom we teach) helps give them a flavor of what God's unconditional love is like. This is the best way to teach God's love to others.

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