1. Does God Really Care About You?
2. What is God Like? Does he have a name?
3. Is is possible to get close to God?
It's one thing to quote Scripture, but I would have thought personal experience would come into answering such questions.
1. Does God care about you?
No doubt He does, but He can also be humiliating, and somewhat frustrating, if my experience is any guide, and I'm not the only one.
2 Corinthians 4:8 NIV
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;
Even St. Paul, and he was a tough nugget if ever there was one, was complaining, sotto voce, that God was frustrating at times; he and
they were perplexed.
Then there's St. Paul's frustration with the "thorn in the flesh" (deliberately unidentified in my opinion, so that whatever "thorn in the flesh" we might have, the answer is the same viz. "My grace is sufficient for you; My strength is made perfect in your weakness"). That's not exactly welcome news for me, and I don't think most of us would like it either if we were put to the test.
You're probably American and you live in a culture where you're expected to do things in your own strength. Here's God telling us that's not how
He operates.
2. What is God Like? Does he have a name?
I'll leave the name to God. The ancient Jews gave him a dozen names in the Old Testament, no doubt influenced by their current experience, the term of reference they were using in whatever context was important at the time, other cultures and all the rest. When He decides to tell me, then I'll know and not before. Until then I know as much about His name as you do ie. nothing. I'm afraid we're not on budsy-wudsy first name terms at the moment.
As for what God is like - complex. He's a God who in His original pristine state just "was, and is, and is to come". This universe is entirely the product of His imagination, which is rather remarkable as in His original state, He would have known and required
nothing in Himself of the requirements of this universe, if it was to exist. He had to imagine everything from start to finish, and then bring it all into being.
Since He's maintaining and monitoring it at all points and all places at all times, including the thoughts, words and actions of 7 billion people simultaneously and the state of all those who have died, and the future of all those who are to come, then He's not simple.
3. Is is possible to get close to God?
I don't know about you, but I've had some very definite "spiritual experiences" which have been pretty clear in their intent. But I've also had far, far more that have been "vague" - at the time they occurred, I wasn't sure if they were from God, the devil or myself, and if they could be trusted, often only becoming clear with hindsight.
I see a psychiatrist a handful of times a year. Like me, he's a Catholic by choice (ex-Protestant) and most of our discussions these days are really about spiritual things.
I remember he made a comment once - "These spiritual experiences are always
vague ... If God came upon us with any real power, He'd kill us."
So how close can you get to God? Well, a handful of saints have had their
night of fire, as for example with Blaise Pascal who wrote it on a piece of paper and then had it sewn into the lining of his coat -
The year of grace 1654,
Monday, 23 November, feast of St. Clement, pope and martyr, and others in the martyrology. Vigil of St. Chrysogonus, martyr, and others. From about half past ten at night until about half past midnight,
FIRE.
GOD of Abraham, GOD of Isaac, GOD of Jacob
not of the philosophers and of the learned.
Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.....etc.
Is it possible to get close to God - well, sort of, but not
too close. Moses had to stand in a cleft of the rock while God passed him by, and he was not allowed to see God's face, or he'd have died.
A somewhat dangerous
fire - to us humans anyway.
So God hides Himself, and leaves us to find Him by faith, although He does give us from time to time (usually vague) witnesses to His presence.
