Detecting God

So how do we detect God?  I was in a car traveling with a colleague who just couldn't understand how people could believe without the tangible proof of a repeatable scientific experiment.  It got me to thinking.  Perhaps the tool of the scientific method is just the wrong tool.

Consider this.  To measure distance we use a ruler.  To measure light we use a photometer.  To measure radiation we use a Geiger counter.  A ruler just doesn't work to measure light intensity.  Perhaps when we ask ourselves about detecting God, we assume that we can use the tools that are common to our daily experience:  Rulers, speedometers, cameras, and radios.  But just as a chain saw is a lousy tool for caulking windows, so is the measurement of God's presence by traditional methods impossible without tools designed to the task.

So what are the tools for detecting God?  A humble heart made subject to God will resonate in God's presence in the way that a tuning fork will resonate in the presence of a particular tone.  Though there may be other ways to detect God's presence, it is this humble submission that seems to be the only commonly accepted tool based on human experience.

 Because God speaks through Creation (see Romans 1), there is a place for detecting God by exploring and studying creation.  But that is like discovering the artifacts of an ancient civilization.  There is a difference between discovering a pottery shard and living with an indigenous culture. Both give evidence of the culture, but only one is an experience that is undeniable and experiential.  Studying God's creation and living in relationship with God are both ways of detecting God, but one is a more authentic and complete experience.

So we should study creation, and we should measure it with the tools of science, engineering, and practical living.  But we should also be seeking to explore a more living experience of God whose presence is not measured with a micrometer.

God Speaks

The opening lines from the New Testament letter to the Hebrews opens this way:

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.

As my friends Jacob and Vinod and I wandered across this passage, I began to wonder.  How does God speak?  Many say they have heard from God.  Some describe it as a clear sense, an unmistakable hint, and on rare occasions, a voice.  For me, it has never been a voice.  Perhaps it is because God does not choose to speak English.  

Consider this:  American Sign Language (ASL) is a language.  It has grammar and structure and meaning and consistency.  But it contains very little of what we know as English per se.  One won't recognize cognates, and the system we use to capture and parse the language is optical rather than audible.  It is different in almost every way from spoken English.

Household pets seem to make some of their desires known.  There is meaning without a spoken language.

Is it possible, then that God speaks with clarity and purpose but perhaps only rarely in the form of utterance that we usually associate with the spoken word?  Romans 1 may give us a hint here:

... what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Apparently at least in some occasions, God makes his himself and his purpose clear through creation.

John's famous opening lines, "In the beginning was the word" gives us a hint too.  

There seems to be an overwhelming sense that God communicates, but perhaps not in what we normally consider a spoken connection of words, syntax, and rules of acoustics and grammar.  If, however, it appears to be language-like, then would could assume from analogy that it is learn-able.

The 10th chapter of the Gospel of John includes these words.

“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

John calls this a "figure of speech."  Perhaps because no other form quite describes how God speaks.  If learning the language of God is like learning other languages, then it requires immersion, focus, determination, practice and guidance from those who are already fluent.

Perhaps that is the meaning of mentoring and discipleship.