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\u201cI have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You\u201d (Job 42:5).<\/p>\n
WE ARE FAR AWAY FROM GOD, AND THE JOURNEY BACK TO HIM TAKES MORE THAN A DAY. We begin by hearing distant reports of Him, perhaps listening to them skeptically because they don\u2019t fit with what we think we know of reality. Eventually, however, we begin to see some truth in what we\u2019ve heard. At some point, we may commit ourselves to seeking Him and living according to His principles, although some of these principles still don\u2019t make complete sense to us. But over time, we discover that we\u2019ve passed into a completely different land than we used to live in. What once was theory now seems solid and very practical. We find that the knowledge of God is no longer something to speculate about but rather something to experience. Like Job, who said, \u201cI have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you,\u201d we find that however serious we were about God before, He has now become real<\/em> to us. And in the process of His becoming real to us, we ourselves have become real also.<\/p>\n It needs to be said, of course, that the passage from knowing God in theory to knowing Him in real life involves a good deal of discomfort. Just as it is through suffering that our knowledge becomes wisdom, so it is through suffering that our wisdom becomes reality. Only as we work our way through hardships do we learn that the truth really is true after all. The safe nursery of our thinking is not where we find out what works and what doesn\u2019t; it\u2019s out in the street where mistakes about what is real are costly. That is why God invites us to take some risks and put Him to the test: \u201cOh, taste and see that the Lord is good\u201d (Psalm 34:8).<\/p>\n Becoming real is a gradual process. It takes place so slowly that sometimes we wonder if we\u2019re making any progress at all. But if we\u2019re patient \u2014 and if we\u2019re willing to accept a certain amount of pain as we learn \u2014 then the time will come when the best of the good ideas we\u2019ve had will come true. We\u2019ll find ourselves not merely thinking about God but knowing Him. And in God, what we\u2019ve always wanted to be is what we actually will be!<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Real isn\u2019t how you are made,\u2019 said the Skin Horse. \u2018It\u2019s a thing that happens to you . . . It doesn\u2019t happen all at once. It takes a long time’\u201d (Margery Williams).<\/p>\n Gary Henry \u2013 WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com<\/p>\n