A journey of God is not a place, an idea, an objective, nor somewhere you go to. It is a discovery that you are. There is no mistake in the Jewish choice of a name for God: I am who am. I am that I am. I am the act of the becoming of now; I am the momentary reality in which everything else has faded. I am the experience that says God exists.
The first step of the journey can be recognized in common peak experiences. Anyone who loses themselves in an experience will have had the first step into understanding the divine presence, and will have some sense of the glory of God. The more difficult part of the journey, however, is answering That I Am. This is where the journey shows infinite meaning, and for those who understand That I Am and faithfully journey, they see change in their lives. In the examples below, each person had a true experience of God, and it’s the first step of I Am. The difficult part is taking the next step to answer That I Am.
Example #1: Mountaineer
The wind is going by him, and he sees the rocks, the mountain side, and the peak coming forward, and there comes a point where everything disappears because he is also moving toward something inside, and he is not abandoning. He is experiencing a journey of God because in addition to the physical climb, there is also something happening inside of himself: a becoming. He has an awareness that he is one with his experience, there is a knowing of life, and there is no objection or question from any part of his being
Example #2: Scientist
She immerses herself in research, theories, and experiments. She studies the minutiae of her particular subject, looking for ways to explain a hunch, an assumption, or an unexplainable phenomenon. After exhaustive testing, data collecting, and much frustration, an unexpected crystal clear vision rushes into her mind and integrates all the pieces of data into a new scientific discovery. Although she can’t immediately explain where the vision came from, she will willingly take months to work out the proofs for peer review to validate the discovery, because the vision was too real to doubt.
Example #3: Football Player
When a football player takes the ball in his hands, suddenly he is no longer the runner, he is no longer the person who has received the ball, he is one with the whole. For one moment, he, the ball, the lights, the people, those who were chasing him, those that are protecting him, are all one single unit. After his career high points, if he does not take the next step into understanding That I Am, this moment will be the most real thing he has ever experienced, and in an effort to re-live it, he will talk about it until the day he dies.
That I Am is understanding that you are infinitely more than what you would become, and also what you would not become. A true act of faith is when you are willing to perpetually create from each new point as the creator creates you, detaching from what might come from each new step.
