Unknown God

I remember a few years back I was approached and asked a question about God. I gave a broad theological response on the omnipotent power of God. I thought the phrases and concepts I used were quite comprehensive. Then I asked if there were any follow up questions. There was a blank look and after a few seconds of silence: I’m good. How does one earnestly follow up when the prior phrases and concepts used had no meaning to them to begin with!
 
I have spent enormous amounts of hours studying and summarizing Church doctrines and I comprehend pretty well the deeper truths of these beliefs. But as I have reached what is at best the last 1/3 of my life, I feel more attracted to wisdom than to knowledge – The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight (Proverbs 4:7).
 
Recently while searching through the Acts of the Apostles I came to where Paul visits Athens. As I read through this, I stopped and thought about how Paul approached the people there. He doesn’t just start talking about God. He observes them, listens and asks questions. He eats with them and he genuinely affirms them. In other words, he met them on their terms and he used what they knew from their culture to begin to orient them to a deeper place with God. He wasn’t just zoned in on a script tucked away in his head. He was open to them and finally he did speak to them about God, but not in a way that seemed utterly strange to them.
 
Paul took a look at their culture and saw in the ordinary where the divine was present. By doing this, he was able to speak with them in plain relatable terms. He was less interested in impressing them and being right. He was more interested in learning what he could about them. Without doing that, he never could have authentically affirmed them. He started by talking about what they had right, not what they had wrong. This kept divisiveness out and room for conversation to take place about the altar of the unknown God (Acts 17:22-31).
 
Wisdom isn’t spending enormous effort trying to get others up-to-speed on deep theological concepts. Wisdom rests in focusing on the ordinary and familiar that others can relate God to. It’s amazing when one starts to do this. The more often one does, there is a good chance they find God in the most unexpected places. It’s in these moments, that there is opportunity to talk about faith in in profound ways.