Browsing the shelves in the library last week I saw many biographies of the famous and infamous.  So many different accounts of the same famous people!  Which of them presents the reader with the true picture of the life of their chosen subject?  Some of the authors were very close to the person whose life they describe – personal friends or professional colleagues.  Yet still the different perspectives prevail, not just shedding light onto a range of experience, times and relationships, but competing with one another on the library shelves for their authoritative voice, their version of the truth.  Sometimes the authors were writing from a detached researcher’s point of view, while some of those who were really close then fell out with their subject so the biography was written from a rather vitriolic standpoint.  But all these people are writing different accounts of the same person; if they were all true, they would all be the same, wouldn’t they?  The words in the front flap of one particular autobiography illustrated the problem:

“Much has been written about the man at the heart of New Labour.  Now we hear the unvarnished truth from the man himself.”*

So is an autobiography the answer?  Perhaps first-hand experience is required to really know anyone.

How can we really know people?

Have you ever been introduced to someone you already know?  You hear your friend being described by an unsuspecting mutual acquaintance, and gain an insight into unfamiliar territory.  Is this the same friend you have known for years?  You thought you were close, but clearly there is much you didn’t know.

How do we get to know people?  We could ask them round for dinner, or we might go for a walk.  Some people we meet just occasionally and say,

“Hi, how are you?”
“Oh, fine thanks.  How are you?”
“Yeah, I’m good.  Nice weather we’re having.”

And then you move on.  You never really get to know them.  Other people know them well; friends, family, colleagues.  But each one knows that person from a different perspective.  They see a different part of their lives.  So it’s not that they know them better, they just know them differently.  Like those who leave us feeling guilty by enthusiastically prescribing their own relationship with the Lord in place of our unique, personal experience.

God says we should know Him

So when God says that we should know Him, what does that look like?  What does He mean when He says that we should know Him?  In Jeremiah the Lord says that we shouldn’t boast about wisdom, or strength, but that we should boast that we know Him:

This is what the Lord says:
“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,
 but let him who boasts boast about this:
that he understands and knows me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,”
declares the Lord.  (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

We look at some outstanding Christians, and say, “Ah yeah, well, I can’t ever know God like Billy Graham did, or like my pastor at church.  That’s their job – to know God.  They can spend all their time in study and prayer…  I would never be able to know God like they do.”

How can we possibly know God?

So when God says that we should know Him, how can we know Him?  We could spend more time, we could pray more, and as we pray we could pray that we would really get to know God.  We could read the bible, get some good study notes about “How You Can Know God in Only Five Minutes a Month,”  “Getting Closer,” or “Almost There!”  We could sit and meditate, and think if only we stay still long enough, reflect deeply enough, then we’ll get closer to God and know Him better.  And those other people that we see around us who appear to have a really close walk with God – we can ask them for their advice.

But then are we finding out about God rather than getting to know God Himself?  We can end up thinking that we will never know God like those other people do.

Maybe we won’t, but perhaps we will know God the way only we can.  And it will never be the same as the way other people know Him.

We can know Him like we do

And so let’s determine to just get to know God the way that we know God, not the way others do.  This isn’t a licence to create a God of our own making, since He has already written His autobiography.  Seeing God as he reveals Himself instead of how we would like Him to be is a crucial choice we make.  He says, “I Am,” not “Who would you like me to be?”

Get to know God in ways that other people don’t.  And enjoy the delightful experience of God knowing you in ways that no-one else ever will.

Are you prepared to take that risk, and then write your own biography of God onto the pages of your life?

 

*Mandelson, P. (2010) The Third Man, London, Harper Press
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