Faith is about having a personal relationship with God.  That's how many people of faith describe the underpinning of their religious life.  Realistically, this language is a shorthand way of describing how we choose to orient our lives in faith that there is a spiritual reality at the heart of all of life, including our lives, and that it is has the essential nature of what we call love.

Theologian Paul Tillich described this perspective in many of his writings by asserting that, as human beings, we are created for Eternity (God) and yet we exist somewhat cut off from that Eternity while in our temporal (human, earthly) existence.  We are able to touch Eternity in some measure through artistic expression and especially in deep, personal, and intimate relationship.  And deep, personal, and intimate relationship with others begins with knowing ourselves deeply and honestly.

My experience and belief is that God is somehow available to us in terms that we might best describe as relationship.  And the way to know God is to know ourselves.  Without a clear sense of who we are at the core of our being, we will tend to create an image of God often out of our own fears or neediness.  Then, as we seek to serve that God of our own creation, the process will not serve us or others well.  Moving toward a more intimate knowledge of ourselves is a humbling process, much like what the Apostle Paul wrote, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." (Philippians 2:12) 

John Howard Griffin (author of Black Like Me and official biographer for Fr. Thomas Merton) interpreted Merton's thoughts on this matter by saying:

Before you [can] be yourself, you [have] to take the time to become yourself, to face yourself in your fundamental reality, and to peel away the accretions of mediocre or false values imposed by society, ambition, and self-interest.  Only then, as the overflow of such contemplation, [can] you find your truth and your reality.  (Thomas Merton:  The Hermitage Years)

Having a personal relationship with God involves growing to know ourselves more honestly and also being in community more intimately.  It involves our relationship with the larger community of humanity and the natural order as well.  This is the piece of the faith journey that engages our passion for social justice, that engages the worldwide Church in terms of its policies and posture - its attitude of hospitality and of welcoming.  What if I am not Caucasian, English-speaking, male, or straight?  What if I am not orthodox in my theology?  What if I do not believe the Bible can or should be taken literally as the guideline for my life?  What if I believe that following Jesus and taking of my cross is much more complicated and demanding of me than going to church and doing some good deeds?  Will the Church welcome me?  Will I find Christ at the heart of the Church that will not welcome me?

I wonder how much good it does me to have a personal relationship with God, yet be part of a church that fails to confront its own failure to follow Jesus.  What good does it do any of us to be on an individual journey of faith that ignores the broken state of the world and of the environment?  I suspect you know my answer -- it does precious little good.  The purpose of the race in which we are all competing is not to finish first, but for everyone to finish.  As a result, the dream I see that compels me forward in life is to change the world by changing the church.  This is what Jesus called his disciples to join him in doing as they walked toward Jerusalem.  This is the invitation I hope we're all hearing today.

Thanks for continuing to bless me as we journey together.
  
Jack Price

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