So, how do we experience the God within us? To say that we search for this internal God is a misnomer. The more we search , The less likely we are to find the object of our search. It is paradoxical though nonetheless true that the only way to “find” the God within us is to stop searching, to let go of all the temporal images, beliefs and legalisms and open ourselves to the awareness or presence of this life force, the life force we label “God”.
We experience the awareness of God when we are truly present to others… when we open ourselves with compassion to the needs and the suffering of others. As a precursor to experiencing the presence of God within us, this empathy for others will lead us to that God. And then, sitting alone in the dark of the night, fully alert and open to God’s presence, the awareness of that life force will come from deep within us and remain with us.
Our God does not come to us through the babble and confusion of daily life. This life force, deep within comes only through the stillness of our minds, through the quiet emanating from out of those depths and is present to us as we live our daily lives even as those lives would, on the surface, appear to be frenetic, random and sometimes driven.
We each conceptualize God in different ways. For some of us the faith of our childhood remains real and comforting. While others are alienated from and hostile to an anthropomorphic God. But, God is beyond conceptualization, whether the god of children or the anthropomorphic God of the alienated.
The God beyond conceptualization…. the god within waits for us to drill down to open ourselves… to empty ourselves so that this God may find us… may reveal itself to us… may enfold us… may permeate our very being. Whatever image we may have in our minds of our God, we must go to that place within ourselves to experience the fullness and presence of that God.