Discovering God
The importance of discovering God for oneself
At the age of seventy-two I find myself spending an
increasing amount of time on area campuses, and hosting a growing number of
young people making a pilgrimage to the monastery. At an age when many of my
contemporaries are grandfathers, or even great grandfathers, I've discovered
the truth of something I read about while still a college student. Grandparents
are often more sympathetic to the burdens and challenges that young people face
than their own parents. Age seems to mellow us out and make us more sympathetic
to the challenges young people face. We become less judgmental because we've
been down the same road and know that, in the end, these young people will come
out just fine.
A few years ago I had the mother of a boy of about
thirteen arrive at the monastery, son in tow. She was upset because her son had
declared himself an atheist and she was afraid he was in danger of eternal
damnation. I sat down with the boy and told him that each one of us has to come
to a personal awareness of the reality of God for ourselves. Doubting the
existence of God, I told him, is all part of building a personal relationship
with God. If we simply go through the motions without seeking a real
relationship, we might as well be atheists. My own youth was filled with great
spiritual struggle, as I sought to fill the void I felt within my heart.
Most young people struggle with questions about things
eternal. It is part of relationship building. Like the young lad who visited
with his mom, I struggled with doubt. The only difference was that my struggle
happened during my college days. It was a period of time when I was filled with
anxiety about the future, and fearful of making the wrong decisions. I
understand the issues facing young people today because I was a young man with
the same fears, and struggling with many of the same issues.
Knowing as I do now the importance of being honest, I
told the mother to let her son explore for himself the reality of God. It was
better for him to question the existence of God than to simply feign belief. At
the same time I told the boy he needed to attend church with his family because
it was important to be obedient to his parents and supportive of his younger
brother. After all, one does not tell his parents that he's not going to attend
school just because he doesn't see his studies as important.
The God this boy was rejecting was the very false
image of God that I have long rejected. The God I have come to know personally
is not the same god I rejected in my youth. The God revealed in Jesus Christ is
the One Whom I've personally experienced and Who first sought me out.
If we are to have a personal relationship with God we
must be open and honest and unafraid to question. The Lord wants us to be real
with Him. Like the sound relationship that one sees in a long and successful
marriage, a relationship with God must first and foremost be based in honesty
and truth. Love and trust come with time and experience. Our relationship with
God is something that builds over time, like all good relationships, results in
a sense of peace.
It is this peace and joy that I want to impart to
young people. My personal relationship with Christ is something that I want to
share, and not just with Orthodox youth may make a pilgrimage to the monastery.
I KNOW God exists because I've experienced His great love in a personal way,
and it is this certainty of the reality of God that leads me to reach out to
the college students, and faculty, of the Puget Sound's area colleges and
universities. They, like me, need to discover God for themselves, and build
upon a relationship that began with their conception.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
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