Authentic God Experience

 

I just started reading How Big Is Your God: The Freedom to Experience The Divine by Paul Coutinho.
In the Introduction Father Richard Rohr says,
"Organized religion appears to be coming to a significant impasse in many parts of the world....What I see emerging is quite simply a desire for authentic God experience--instead of mere external belief systems, about which we can be right or wrong. People do not feel they have to leave their existing group, call its beliefs into question, or overreact to any particular part that they do not yet understand or agree with. They just quietly move toward a much deeper renewal of encounter at levels of prayer, inner experience, spiritual disciplines, and various kinds of contemplative practice."
Our world seems to be evolving into a new consciousness. Many people hunger for some satisfying experince of the Divine. It is one of the reasons that I chose to come to live here by the lake by myself. The Divine comes to each of us in our own individual way. In everyday ordinary things like shadows on a road. In the extraordinary beauty of snow clinging to pine needles. In a work of art like the movie Juno. If religion is to flourish, it is crucial to encourage this desire for authentic God experience.