But of course, while God created us and transcends us, God doesn't live separated from us. God lives within each of us. If we walk away from God, we walk away from the Center of ourselves. Maybe we've left God out of our lives because we think that God is a vengeful white-bearded King hurling thunderbolts down on us. But God is the quiet whisper of love inside us that affirms our worth when we think we are worthless and calls us to come home to Him and be embraced. For the Spirit of God has made each of us, and the Spirit of God gives us life, and that Life is Love. Our essential nature is Love, because we are made in the Image of God Who is Love.
Maybe you've left God behind because religion itself seems tribalistic, pitting one set of beliefs against another, and instigating religious wars throughout history. But if we go back to that foundational belief of mystics and saints that God lives within each of us, that we are all created by God's Spirit Who gives each of us life, then we believe that God speaks within each soul, gives each person immeasurable dignity, desires that each person become more and more loving. The violence of religious wars is not the result of true faith or a true understanding of Who God is, but is the result of the distorted beliefs of elitist human beings who want to believe that they're better than anyone else and deserve to have dominance.
If Christians, for example, desire that others be converted to Christianity, it should not be because they think that people of other faiths do not know God or are not "close" to God. Because God speaks to reverent Hindus, Jews, Druids, and Buddhists, for example, from where God dwells at the center of their souls. Christians should be on fire and enthusiastically want to share the Good News that Jesus, the Son of God, became one with us, and shows us the Face of God Who is merciful Love, that God in Jesus lived and died for us and that in Him we can rise to new life - because this Good News is a priceless Gift, a Revelation of the deepest facet of God's Life that people of other religions do not yet know. Yet a religious Jew, Hindu, or Muslim, for example, who prays and communes with God as he or she knows God, can share faith with us in dialogue to bless us in return. God's work in individual souls is beyond our knowledge or wildest imaginings!
I had just such a prayerful conversation with a Muslim woman recently. She asked my husband and me what all this business is about Sunni and Shiite - and told us that she doesn't even know what those words mean. My husband explained the differences to her, and she found such dissension among her people meaningless. She is a simple Muslim woman of simple faith who prays several times a day, and out of respect for God follows the discipline of not eating pork. She believes her God calls her to love others, and she does - very well. Although she grieves for lost loved ones and feels angry at their loss, she does not blame God for their deaths. She believes that they live now in God's garden. As we looked in each others' eyes, the Flame of the Holy Spirit of Love leaped between us, uniting us.
God never leaves us, because God is incapable of being unfaithful to Himself - and "Himself" includes God's union with each of our souls. Coming close to God simply means asking God to break down the self-imposed, egoistic barriers that prevent us from recognizing our essential unity with God. We "leave" God or can't find God when we've closed the eyes of our soul and ignored God's Presence which waits for us right in front of us, or when we've forcefully torn ourselves away from our Divine Lover Who is in anguish until we return to Him. This is what sin is - deliberately separating ourselves from our essential unity with the One Who lives within us.
We can never really lose God. What we CAN lose are our childish perceptions of God, our picture of God as a white-bearded Tyrant hurling thunderbolts at us, or inciting religious violence, or pitting one faith against another, or looking for ways that we break the Law so He can send us to Hell, - or living just Beyond the Rainbow, far away from us. God is Love Itself, and Real Love is not a namby-pamby sentimental feeling, but a muscular trumpet call to action. God Who lives intimately within all of us calls all of us to live intimately with all others - those of every nation, race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, social class, and political persuasion. To love the unborn as much as the born, the aged and demented as much as the healthy and strong, the refugee as much as the veteran. This is radical. Unpopular. Not easily understood. This is God. This is Love. The Love Who made each of us. Listen to His quiet but challenging Voice within you.