“No one has ever seen God.  But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.”  1 John 4:12

“Years ago my mother used to say to me, she’d say, ‘In this world, Elwood . . . you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.’  Well for years I was smart, I recommend pleasant.  And you may quote me.”  Elwood P. Dowd, from the movie Harvey

Have you ever met someone who has an invisible friend?  You know, weird people who spend lots of time having conversations with someone nobody else can see.  You may think they’re nutty, but where we come from, they’re called Christians.  If you are one, your invisible friend has a name—no, it’s not Harvey—it’s God and he is very real.

In case you don’t get the reference, we’re talking about the 1950 classic movie Harvey starring Jimmy Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd—a mild-mannered, pleasantly eccentric man whose best friend is named Harvey.  The twist is that Harvey just happens to be an invisible, 6-foot, 3 1/2 –inch tall, white rabbit.  Harvey is one of our [Srogen and Ping]   favorite movies precisely because it forces the audience to ask, “Who’s crazy here?  Is it the friendly, easy-going, and very generous Elwood? Or all the frustrated, unhappy people trying to force him into treatment?”

During the movie Elwood is taken to receive a treatment that’s guaranteed to get him back in touch with “reality.”  The taxi driver who takes Elwood for this treatment stops to ponder the whole thing, saying, “I’ve brought them out here to get that stuff, and I’ve drove them home after they had it . . . On the way out here, they sit back and enjoy the ride.  They talk to me; sometimes we stop and watch the sunset, and look at the birds fly.  And sometimes we stop and watch the birds when there ain’t no birds and look at the sunset when it’s raining.  We have a swell time.  And I always get a big tip.”

In other words, a “crazy” person with an invisible friend, an open heart, and a generous attitude is still a wonderful companion to share a cab with.  Those kinds of people see things others don’t see, and dream dreams others dismiss as wishful thinking.  In many ways they’re a breath of fresh air in a stale and stuffy world.

In fact, we’d like to think of Christ’s followers as cab passengers who have a relationship with a real invisible friend—a friend who allows them to transcend a lot of the ugly pettiness of the world, a friend who allows them to look beyond the “What’s in it for me?” attitude.  Call it “divine madness” or perhaps “divine sanity.”  Either way, life is much richer, more real, and less sinister with this invisible friend at our sides.

Take a look at history and you’ll encounter lots of people over the centuries who’ve experienced the intimate, moment-by-moment relationship with God the Bible talks about.  Once these folks encountered God, their lives were never “conventional” again.  They weren’t average or even slightly above average—their relationship with God made them extraordinary!  George is a good example.  He was born into slavery near the end of the American Civil War and began talking with the “invisible” God when he was just 10 years old.

“God just came into my heart one afternoon while I was alone in the loft of our big barn . . . that was my simple conversion, and I have tried to keep the faith,” George wrote many years later.

As he grew to be a young man, George’s passion to understand everything he could about God and his creation burned within him.  He took long walks in the woods collecting and studying all sorts of plants and insects.  Overcoming huge social obstacles, George pursued a level of education generally denied to ex-slaves.  Eventually he even earned a Master’s degree from Iowa State Agricultural College and spent 47 years on the faculty of the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama.

If you’ve studied American history, perhaps you’ve already guessed we’re talking about the great agriculturist and inventor George Washington Carver—the man who invented over 300 marketable products derived from peanuts.  You may be able to name several of his peanut products, but what you may not know is that George Washington Carver was a man who loved God deeply and talked to God daily.  And some of his greatest inventions were direct answers to a simple prayer that went like this: “Mr. Creator, why did you make the peanut?”

In addition to creating flour, instant coffee, shampoo, rubber, cosmetics, axel grease, mayonnaise, and hundreds of other products from peanuts, George’s greatest joy was shaping the lives of innumerable students and introducing them to his unseen friend.  He once wrote: “I want [my students] to find Jesus . . . How I long for each one to walk and talk with the Great Creator through the things He has created.”

George’s love and trust of the invisible God not only allowed him to conquer terrible poverty and racial prejudice in his own life but it helped him empower millions of other people to do the same.  He lived the overflowing life that this blog is all about!

George Washington Carver is just one of countless people who’ve lived uncommonly powerful lives with the help of this invisible friend.  The book of Hebrews lists several of them and tells of how one of them, Moses, overcame his fear of the Pharaoh and saved his people from slavery “because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:26, emphasis added).  Moses, George, and many others have come to know the invisible God as a protector, provider, and powerful friend—and have led great lives because of it.

Unfortunately, we’ve met plenty of other people who’ve lost or never had a vital connection with the invisible friend we’re talking about.  There is a parallel between their experiences and what Elwood’s cab driver predicted would happen to Elwood once the treatment caused him to lose touch with his invisible friend.  Here’s what the cab driver said,

“Afterwards, un oh, they crab, crab, crab.  They yell at me.  Watch the lights.  Watch the breaks.  Watch the intersection.  They scream at me to hurry.  They got no faith in me, or my buggy.  Yet, it’s the same cab, the same driver.  And we’re going back over the very same road.  It’s no fun.  And no tips . . . After this he’ll be a perfectly normal human being.  And you know what stinkers they are!”

If you are tired of being a perfectly normal, self-focused “stinker,” it’s high time you were introduced to—or reacquainted with, or just reminded to pay more attention to—the invisible God who not only promises to “guide you into all truth” (John 16:13a, NLT) but also to “never leave you nor forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:8b, NIV).

Maybe you’re still not sure whether or not God is real.  Or maybe you’re still questioning whether or not God is all the incredible things we’ve described.  Or maybe the big question for you is how in the world to start this wonderful friendship with God.  No matter what questions you’re asking right now, the best way forward is to check God out for yourself.  Go ahead and take him up on his invitation to come drinking.   We’re serious—it’s the same offer mentioned earlier:

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture  has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:37b-38, NIV).

What Does It Mean to Have a “Relationship”

Maybe you’ve heard someone talking about “getting to know God in a personal way.”  Of course, most of these people will freely admit they’ve never seen God with their eyes, heard God with their ears, smelled God with their noses, nor touched God with their fingers.  And yet they speak as if relating directly with the all-powerful, all-knowing Creator is the most natural thing in the world.  It’s a truly audacious claim if we’ve ever heard one!  And it’s no less audacious for being 100 percent true.

It may sound odd to those who haven’t experienced it, but you can actually get to know God in some of the same ways you get to know human friends.  Of course, instead of using only your five senses to interact with God, you have to learn to see and hear with your spirit.  When Jesus asked some of the people who followed him, “Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear?” (Mark 8:18a, NIV).  Jesus was talking about spiritual blindness and deafness.  In another passage he spoke to people whose spiritual eyes and ears were wide open, saying to them, “Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear” (Matthew 13:16, NIV).  It’s why the Apostle Paul prays “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe (Ephesians 1:1819, NIV, emphasis added).

Getting to know Jesus is exciting stuff.  Your heightened spiritual senses may take a while to develop (or re-energize), but if you’ve prayed for God to do this, you’re on your way.  As your spiritual senses begin to stir, you’ll start to see things differently.  You’ll begin to experience God, his creation, and people around you in a whole new way.  Fresh, unexpected thoughts will “pop” into your head.  These are called “flutter-bys”—fleeting, almost imperceptible whispers of God’s still, small voice flickering through your head.  You’ll perceive them as whispers, not shouts, so it’s easy to mistake them for your own thoughts.  But as God continues honing your spiritual eyes and ears, you’ll begin to tell the difference.

Loving, generous whispers—the ones that stretch you to go beyond what you would normally do—will stand out from everyday, self-focused thinking.  The more God tunes your spiritual senses through Bible reading, Christian mentors, and time spent in prayer, the more you’ll recognize the kinds of ideas that come from God and the kinds that don’t.  (Here’s a clue: The condemning inner voices that call you a loser, tempt you to exploit others, or go against clear biblical teaching—those aren’t coming from God.)

Getting to Know Jesus

As we said earlier, getting to know Jesus personally is very similar to getting to know any average mortal.  For instance, if you want to become friends with anyone, it’s a good idea to get to know that person’s story.

You want to find out a little bit about where that person grew up and what experiences that person’s had—like Steve’s [Sjorgren] experiences as a student and then a pastor in Norway, or Dave’s [Ping] early life growing up in a military family and moving from coast to coast.  Simple things like this tell you a lot about a person.  And in Jesus’ case, you can get to know his story by reading the first four books of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  By reading these books, you’ll start learning Jesus’ story and you’ll find out more and more about Jesus’ personality and motivations.  You’ll get to know what Jesus likes and dislikes.

Understanding how Jesus spent his time and the people he hung out with while he was on earth will tell you a lot about him.  By reading the Bible, you’ll find out what made Jesus laugh and cry, what excited him, and what made him angry.  It’s all right there in four short books.

Of course, even though you can learn a great deal from reading, you can never fully get to know someone from just reading a book.  After all, there are fans who know everything there is to know about their favorite movie stars—their hometowns, what they eat for breakfast, who they’re dating right now—but that doesn’t mean they have two-way, personal friendships with them.  They may know a lot about movie stars, but they don’t know them.  Fans might be able to relate to movie stars based on their perceptions, but that is not the same as having true relationships with them.

How can you tell if people really know and care about each other in a mutual way?  Well, it may seem kind of obvious, but they usually recognize one another.  They both know the sound of the other’s voice, the way their friend’s handwriting looks, and they can pick each other out in a crowd of strangers.  According to Matthew 10:30, the Lord knows you so intimately he has the very hairs of your head numbered.  Not only can God pick you out of a crowd.  God’s been paying so much attention to you he knows exactly which hairs are still on your head and which ones migrated to your hairbrush this morning!

Since you’re only human, it takes time for you to get to know anybody well.  Forget about hair counting (which is really hard to do with an invisible friend anyway), and think about just spending time together with God as you would with another friend.  Intentionally spending time with God is a bit like driving.  It doesn’t matter who you are, driving takes focus.  If you’re impatient or distracted you’re likely to miss important road signs or even hurt yourself.  Spending quality time with God means slowing down.  And, just like driving, it will become a regular part of your daily life—something that will begin to feel more comfortable and familiar.

Dave [Sjogren] likes sitting on his front porch and “dialing down.”  Reading the Bible for a few minutes helps him slow his racing mind and concentrate on the spiritual “flutter-bys” talked about earlier.  Steve can create space to “hang out” with Jesus anywhere he can listen to music on his iPod.  Learning how to spend time with God is a very personal discovery.  So giving you a “how-to” list could get in the way.  If you’ve invited God to reveal himself to you and give you eyes to see and ears to hear him, then God will answer your prayers.  Just take time to slow down, talk to God, and pay attention to what’s going on inside and around you.

If you don’t feel confident in your ability to hear and see God moving in your life, the next four readings will help you go deeper by listening to God, loving God, sharing with God, and serving God.

Getting Your Feet Wet  (feel free to comment here or the Reflection Pool questions)

Describe your relationship with God right now.  Would you say you’re more like a critic, a fan, an acquaintance, a friend, an intimate partner, or a lover?

The Reflection Pool

What is keeping you from moving closer to God?

• How could you personally go deeper with God?
• How might having a deeper, two-way friendship with God change your life?