I could have dared myself to start a conversation with these two questions, but I haven’t yet. “How are you doing? And… How’s God doing?”

Or rather, maybe it would be better to ask… “What’s God doing?” In Christianity, there’s a certain idea of God as the Protector, the Creator, the Savior, the Sustainer, etc. So maybe God is protecting, creating, saving, sustaining, and doing more than that. When all the pieces align together, and you realize that you aren’t in control of every single thing, this idea could be a bit more understandable.

I’m trying to make a basic introduction to numerous ideas based on the internal experience. This isn’t something I’m taking out of a philosophy or a psychology textbook. This isn’t something I’m summarizing from a theology or religion textbook, either. It’s something that I’m taking out of my personal notes… or the reactions, of myself trying my best to live an exciting, fulfilling, and meaningful life. Of course, the songs, the games, and the stories play a big role in this, because those are the things I used to reflect on when I wrote those notes. And what I’ve learned from the Bible and the Church have been a big foundation to all of this.

In the “About” tab, I put this… “You saw a light in the distance, and then you wanted to grab ahold of it, but you didn’t reach out yet. You felt like you needed a little bit more, but the gap was slowly closing. Yet the gap didn’t close, and you had to leap forward and push through the fog to hold on to what was approaching.”

What I’m referring to in the gap is the barrier between what we want and what we don’t have. There are times when the situation opens up where what we don’t have comes closer to us, and we want to grab it.

Let me give a simple example. One… I want to eat hamburger, but I want a different taste than before. Not knowing what to do, my disappointment leads me to stop eating hamburgers for a year. Two… A new hamburger shop opens across the street from my apartment. Three… I go in, deciding to break the cycle of not having hamburgers, and buy a hamburger. Four… I eat the hamburger and find it has a new, distinct, wonderful taste.

That’s what you want to do, isn’t it? That’s the solution to your problems. Your motives in life come from your desires. You want to be happy, so you find the things that make you happy. You want to have good relationships, so you find the things that will get you there. You want fulfillment, so you find the things that give you joy. And you’d do that, even taking a risk to get there, because you know that is what is important. That is what is meaningful. It has a purpose.
Like I wrote before… I have a strange understanding of these things. Often, I hesitate to find the difference between fictional stories and reality. When they say that it’s just make believe, I wonder if they’re really right. Of course, the story line and the characters are made up, I know. But the things that they stand for… the desires and the struggles, the types of people, the powers that drive the conflict… those are all real. Those can all be applied to real life. There are still desires and struggles, personalities, and powers acting in the real world. In that way, I see how these stories and reality are the same.

Here’s an example that I picked up after putting down a fictional story about people on an adventure. I am surprised about how amazing these people’s lives are. Their lives seem so much more exciting than mine. That was apparent when I read the book. These people’s lives are so exciting. But God’s not going to leave me there crying for more. I have the incredible gift of time to trace the role of God in the novel. God is never mentioned specifically… but there’s a sense of safety, security, reliance, and care. There is the relying on futuristic technology. They are not addicted to the technology (no using phones, no listening to music, no watching TV). They don’t need reminders of how great their lives are, that’s just something they know. They aren’t distracted in worrying about the past, but they might have concern for the future. They have strong friendships, strong connections with those they know, and trust in other people (a few people).

What’s important to consider is that the characters always have a main goal and a side goal. The side goal is usually more dangerous and involved (as portrayed) than the main goal. The side goal is more energetic and more exciting. There are futuristic cities. Everything they need is provided for… their lives are saved by powers and technologies that we don’t have. They don’t have to worry about money. Daily tasks are not shown… daily tasks do not take away their mental energy. They are not burdened by the small things (daily tasks), only the big things.
When I say the main goal, I’m considering the worldly expectation. In this case, the characters were traveling somewhere as explorers. On the other hand, there was a side goal, where the characters are fighting against an evil entity and having to work together. The immediate details don’t matter as much. I’m just trying to outline the general things.

They still want to be happy… and they want to save those whom they know. So that’s why they take on a big quest to go against the evil people.

All we have to do is take some type of wonder at it… and if we can find the things that parallel, hint at, foreshadow, or point toward God (Christian-based understanding), maybe we can list out those things and see how they are similar to our lives. I’m thinking of the stories of service, of redemption, of forgiveness, of second chances… because these came from the parables, the stories.

Many stories out there, fiction or nonfiction, revolve around peace, revenge, violence, and forgiveness. I have watched movies and read books where super-characters almost destroyed the world because they were unhappy, putting billions of people in danger because of what they personally wanted. But if they found peace and forgave each other… the world would be safe.

These are concepts about life, ones that we don’t necessarily need to acknowledge being connected to God. These are qualities that we can all recognize.

I find joy in looking for evidence of God in everything. It’s a sense of familiarity. The same concepts that ruled our world back then rule our world now… and that’s comforting because if we were able to get through then, we can survive now. Yes, we can. I suppose that these types of concepts don’t die. If people said that the Earth was flat back then, they can still do so now. The concept that the people want to claim that the Earth is flat hasn’t died. (I can’t prove to you that the Earth is round or not.)

If God is the Giver of Gifts, and God’s going to be there, we trust that He will give us what we need. The concept of trust is still there too… to trust that the Faith in God will get us somewhere.

There’s a certain tendency for selfishness that I fall for… When the world focuses on ourselves and prioritizes our accomplishments. That’s why the message of God is a danger to the world… because we have to recognize that we are not powerful and not in control. When people argue against God, they come to the conclusion that we should do what we want, that we get to define our own purpose, that we get to make our own plans.

But I’m going to turn around and say that I want to look at my interests, to look at my situation, and then to look for a solution. I have a basic understanding of the world. I didn’t know how complex things were until they said that I had to say goodbye to my life of before, one that found joy in God… that I had to walk away.

But wait, I don’t. Because I was already living in a way that is sustaining. My circumstances weren’t sustaining, but the hope was.

“Lord, what do I tell them when they don’t think You’re with me?”
“Tell them to be patient with themselves…” to look at themselves and who they are.

Theodore Roosevelt says this: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

That’s why we trace. That’s why we find the links back to God. It’s all about this INTERNAL EXPERIENCE. In the Internal Experience, we have the beliefs, we have the concepts, we have the desires… and then we have to apply those to how we live to get the story. We’re not here to spectate… we’re here to live. We’re not here to just watch the lives, we’re here to experience our own as well.

In this trace, the critic is the person who says that believing in God to seek to live a meaningful life of growth is a waste of time. The person who is in the arena is the person who is trying to grow in faith. The sweat and blood comes from encountering the weight of the world. The worthy cause is finding meaning in life. The high achievement is friendship with God. God knows that you’re trying. God appreciates you trying.

It would be very sad if people spent their whole lives just watching through and experiencing other people’s lives. That’s what we would get if we lived off of entertainment. It would be more beneficial if they could spend their entire lives experiencing God. That’s what we would get if we lived off of praises. That would be a better use of time.

How to experience God? Maybe this experience comes in being dependent by letting go of our sense to have worldly power in our lives. When things don’t go our way, we can be patient with ourselves and believe that better things are coming, even if we can’t see them approaching.