Thought #16

O God, who is like you?

- Psalm 71: 19

Ask.

Ask soon.

Ask again and again and again.

And don't look for an answer.  This question doesn't elicit any conventional form of an answer.  There won't ever be words enough to string together in our language or any other that will even come close to answering this question.

So go outside.  Go outside right now.  And spin around.  And spin around just like you were a kid again.  Spin then let gravity take you down dizzy.  And stare up at the sky making animals for clouds.  Storybooks.  Fairy tales.  Kingdoms and castles.  Oceans and sand-dollars found in and out.  Out to in.  Begin again and let life take you away.

This is your answer number one out of a million lists of a million dreams of a million ideas of millions upon-skip-a-few infinity then you still haven't found what you're looking for.

Ask again:  "O God, who is like you?"

Now stay where you are.  Close your eyes.  Find a flower.  Or find the morning light.  Or find storehouses laden with snow.  Or find the foundations of the earth.  Or try to count the stars in the sky.  Or dwell - no, simply dwell on creation.  Wait.  Dwell on you, where you're at right now and find God.

You see, this doesn't make sense.  Nothing.  None of this makes sense at all.  One seemingly simple question and because of it you experience life.  So this whole walking with God thing isn't necessarily about answers.  Because the answer you might find will then lead you on to another answer which will in turn lead you to more answers, but ultimately leading you back to this one question: "O God, who is like you?"

So you thought you were going to find all the answers by signing up for this gig; you will.  Let me tell you though, it's not what you thought; it's so much more.

I look out on this world and on my life - I guess I'm just going along man.  You see, I stand in the sun when summer skies are here - answer number two.  I take those slow breaths on a winter's night finding there's a fire in someone's fireplace somewhere in the neighborhood - answer number three.  I let the last burnt and disheveled wrinkled rustic leaf fall and take flight in slow motion from a passing autumn - my answer number four.  I catch a glaring beam from highway driving then nothing but clear midnight - answer number five.

You see I find God in life.  Experience.  And that question of who is like you, Lord?  Who is really like you?  Is a question with answers forever in motion.  Those answers are different for you than they are for me.  There will never be the same answer even for you in your own life.  I mean, these answers don't repeat.  Never.

We say, "God, who is like you; who is actually like you?"  Well...

And we inherently ask that question.  Most times without even knowing it.

Ask.

Then live life.  Experience all there is to be had.  But know that in living life, that in experience, you are asking the question: "O God, who is like you?"