On Knowing God

From J. I. Packer’s book “Knowing God,” on page 19, he states the following:

“If we postpone our journey till the storm dies down, we may never get started at all.”

As I deal in my own life with frustrations of the arguing and contention over, not truth, but the expression of truth, in churches and individual lives, I am tempted to flee from it all and withdraw myself from the “journey.” my searching mind simply stops, and announces, “I don’t want to know.” But Packer is right. If my journey to know God is one that is postponed because of the perceived difficulties, it may never be started at all.

If I am to know God, I must start today. Even though it’s raining, even though there are people problems, even if my schedule does not seem conducive to it. It must in fact be what today is all about. It must be the pursuit. It must be my purpose. And so today, a day in which I am trying to get away from things, I cannot get away from the journey to knowing God.

Later in chapter 1, Packer explains the need to meditate as part of knowing God, and defines it as:

the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God.

And so, I must meditate, and the only way I know to do so is slowly. And that’s hard. I want everything figured out right now.