Who Is This God?

I really love the movie "Arrival". It has all the suspense, drama, romance and unanswered questions I love to let linger within me.

There is a moment near the beginning of the show, the two main characters, Ian and Louise, are in the helicopter just meeting each other for the first time. Ian is a theoretical physicist, Louise is a linguist. They are brought together to decode the language of the Aliens that have settled in a group of 12 around the world.

Ian comes off pretty arrogant, dismissing her approach and skill set, stating that his way of handling things will be the best approach, because science is the foundation and cornerstone of civilization according to him. He continues to propose that they begin the process of understanding these aliens, with a list of questions relating to the fundamentals of time travel, how they arrived... the sciency stuff.

Louise jumps in saying, "HOW ABOUT WE JUST TALK TO THEM BEFORE WE START THROWING MATH PROBLEMS AT THEM?"

And there it is... a home run hit in my heart.

We want to know more about God, more about ourselves, how we fit in this world and why we are here...
We desire to know the fundamental questions and deep mysteries of the earth, we have a hunger to know how things work and how we got to this place we call today. We want answers as to why there is suffering, why we have to endure pain, why we feel that we are alone, but...
The way we are approaching the relationship is exactly like in this movie; WITHOUT RELATIONSHIP AT ALL.

If you don't know someone, you don't begin the dance of learning about them by asking them for their passwords to their bank accounts, or to read their private journals... you begin the relationship with "hello" and "my name is...". There is a level you begin with, a way of starting the journey of learning who someone is via the basics; the pleasantries of relationships.

Lasting, whole, firm relationships are built on good communication. Learning to listen more than speaking, learning to understand more than advise. The best relationships are founded in the ability for all parties to grow together, learn about each other, be real and honest and thereby growing trust. And it takes time, LOTS of time. And beside time, you will find trust, for it is with trust that you can bridge all the questions to your new new relationship, a bridge that is built over time.

I got sick and tired of people telling me who God was. Completely fried hearing about everyone else's idea of God, their experiences, their beliefs and the way it was jammed down my throat as gospel truth. And you know what... I have done the same thing to others!!!  Ugh. It was all innocent, no one was being malicious in their intent to share about the God they knew, but there was this point where honestly... I didn't care... it was time to shut my ears to the noise of everyone else's God and find out for myself who Papa was.

Do you know who God is?? Who is Papa to you?! Spend some time, start over, dismantle everything you know and say, "Hi, my name is..." instead of, "What, when, where, why, how..."