Opening Up to God

[soso]

Opening Up to God

In a best-selling book, Generation X guru Douglas Coupland tracks a young man /through a troubled era.

He’s remorseful over his mistakes. His marriage has stagnated. He’s ensnared in a meaningless job.

Instead of deep friendships, he endures [what he calls “halfway relationships].”

He’s worried that he doesn’t feel life the way () he used to.

He peers /into his future /with uncertainty.

The book’s title: Life after God.

But after 358 pages of aimlessness and frustration, this was his conclusion:

Now — here is my secret: I tell it /to you with an openness of heart

that I doubt () I shall ever achieve /again, so I pray that you are in

a quiet room /as you read these words. My secret is that I need

God — that I am sick and can no longer make it /alone. I need God

to help me give, because I no longer seem to be capable of giving;

to help me be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to

help me love, as I seem beyond being able to love.

Like Coupland’s character, maybe you have a secret, too.

Perhaps your own circumstances are causing you to conclude that maybe

— just maybe — you need God to breathe hope and life /into your world.

Or maybe you need him to knock the crust off a heart //that’s corroded with self-interest and cynicism.

Or maybe you need him because . . . well, to be honest, you’re not sure why.

You just sense that there’s got to be more to your existence than a job, three meals a day,

and the gnawing feeling that something’s missing.

So you’ve been casually checking out Christianity. Nothing too serious yet.

You’ve leafed /through a book or two.

Questions are swirling /through your mind.

You’d like to get at the truth, but you’re not sure how to — and you’re a little afraid of what you might find.

Or possibly you already know a lot about the idea of God, but you’re realizing that you really don’t know him.

You’ve wrestled with the concept of a deity /yet never embraced Jesus himself.

You went /to church /as a youngster and even went through religion classes,

but they seemed to have numbed you /toward God /more than sensitized you toward him.

If someone asked, you’d say that you were a religious person,

although the truth is this: a heartfelt, life-changing, soul-satisfying faith has always eluded you.

This prayer is for you. Seventeen words //that can start a revolution. Pray them /at your own risk:

“God, open my eyes /to who you really are, and then I’ll open my life /to you.”