What is God?

Today, an acquaintance of mind asked me about simplifying all the ten commandments because ten is just too many. I briefly recalled a similar question being asked or given to Jesus from the Pharisees or disciples. Where and if it was actually Jesus who answered, unfortunately I could not remember, but I recalled the conversation ending with something like: of the greatest of these is love.

To love, I told this acquaintance. I told him to love. He, who insisted he did not believe in God, a god, but constantly asked me about such matter with a visibly and always privately earnest manner, then asked, "Who or what is God". I assumed he asked what is particularly because I'd always spoken about my Indian side and how my father always called Gd, Creator. My acquaintance asked me how did I know, how could I be certain, was a spirit I felt, a feeling. It caused me to think because well, as someone raised in the Christian faith, I never thought about there not being a Gd. As someone learning what is means to be a Christian, for myself, separate from my family, I've wondered was Gd some sort of spirit too or that moment when I get goosebumps all over for seemingly no reason. I thought about the biblical truth, since I believe the Bible. All that came to my mind was my memory verse: God is love 1 John 4:8. Upon learning that verse, it alone was enough to continue my joyful life. But my acquaintance, no.

He continued, Well, what does that mean? Yes, the word Gd or jet the use of Gd and the word love is what us English folks would call an abstract word, maybe even a cliche. Abstract words are not concrete, they don't have a clear meaning or understanding just like the word freedom, fun or pretty. We would instruct our students to stop using these simple, go-to and empty words and push themselves to describe what they were truly feeling. So, yes, I agreed with my friend....what the heck did that mean? There is an answer for that. It could be an app, but it's basically a Bible.

Did you know that scholars have agreed that the Bible is the only religious text with a worldview that answers life's 4 fundamental questions in fullness, correspondence and coherence? The 4 questions being: origin, meaning, morality, destiny.

Anyway, since, I'm not the best Christian in the world, I only knew the verse to be in 1 Corinthians and it began with some "love is patient, love is kind" pattern. Thank Gd, Jesus & Jobs for iPhones 'cause we were able to look it up. It's 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 - Love is patient, love is kind... we found it and I realized how long it'd been since I read from my Lord, what love really is. I also suddenly realized that it's much more than that patient, kind stuff. "...love is not envious, boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." Half of these things I've seen in my own friendships, intimate relationships and the relationships of those around me. Something rubbed me the wrong way in some relationships and I couldn't tell why and it's right here. Because the person insisted on their own way. Because I was irritable and boastful. Because my parents are resentful. Because my co-worker rejoices in wrongdoing. Most importantly, most emphatically, what made me love this verse, sit in a moment of love and reverence of Gd is the portion. It all ends with, "Love never ends."

Amen.

Thank you Lord for love. Thank you Lord for loving me. I've felt so alone. So ugly. So much like a failure. So not smart enough. And honestly, like I've ignored YOU, taken YOU for granted, thought I got this. Thought I knew what love was. But it is you who is love, it is you who is not boastful, rude, hopes the best for me, endures my stupidity, it is you who has promised to never leave me, to always love me. Love, true love, never ends.