Praise Bob

My wife, Ally, posed a question in her recent blog post that really grabbed me. She asked, "What if it doesn't concern God if you call Him God?... What if He just wants to be sought?"

I hadn't thought about it before, but do we honestly think God would cared if we decided to call him something else? I would think as long as we continued to seek and grow with Him, it probably wouldn't bother him too much if I decided to begin a prayer with "Dear Bob."

Although I think the name "Bob" is great, I wonder what else we could call him that would be more fitting of His greatness. If you believe in one of the Abraham-based religions (Christianity, Judaism, or Islam) you statement of faith would basically boil down to "God IS Truth."

Eastern religions (Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism or Buddhism), on the other hand, don't focus on a single God to worship, rather they worship truth itself. To believers of these faiths, "Truth IS God."

Now I know a logician would remind me that if A equals B, B does not necessarily equal A, but it does make us think more about the question Ally brought up. Does God really care what we call Him, or is he just more concerned with us seeking Him. And is He really just one name out of many for ultimate Truth?

Ally calls Him God, not because she calls herself a Christian, but because that is the name that resonates with her and best helps her to understand truth. When she needs help with something or is searching for some peace, she prays to God and usually the result is positive. I, on the other hand, don't pray. I ask for that same peace and assistance through sitting alone in thought; a sort of meditation I guess. Writing this blogs is actually meditative for me. As with Ally's prayer, my results are usually positive. So Ally calls it God and I call it truth, but we both seek and we get the same results. Could it be that God doesn't care if we call him that? Someone said that the journey is better than the destination. Could it be that the search is more important than the searched?

If a detective thinks he knows who has committed a crime but he is wrong and he searches relentlessly for evidence to prove he is right, he will eventually find evidence to point him in the right direction. Whether or not he ever finds the correct perpetrator is irrelevant, the key is that the more he searches, the closer he gets to the truth. It is the same with faith. Even if you find a faith you think is correct, keep searching. You will either find out you were are on the right path, or the evidence you find will lead you in another direction. Either way, you are getting closer to the truth. Don't focus on the end, focus on the path immediately in front of you. Call God whatever you want to call Him, just keep seeking.

Bob Bless