To Whom It May Concern

My friend Lenny was in a tight spot. He was faced with circumstances in his life which he was incapable of controlling or changing on his own power. He sat down with his mentor, a spiritual adviser of sorts. Lenny was told, “you have got to begin praying about your situation and ask for help from God.” Lenny felt like he was in deep trouble. He replied to his mentor saying, “well I do not know what I am going to do. How can I pray? I do not know who God is and I’ve not darkened the door of a church building in years. How am I possibly going to pray to this God I do not know?” “In your case Lenny,” replied the mentor, “you just pray to whom it may concern, asking for help.” Maybe you can identify with Lenny. It is difficult to reach out with any measure of authenticity to a being we do not know. When we are honest, there are times when we even wonder if that being truly exists. I wonder how many times Siri has been asked, “who is God and how do I contact him?” Fortunately, we are not left to rely upon a speech-recognition computer application in order to assuage our curiosity (or necessity). Annually we celebrate the birth of Christ, and in the introduction of John’s book about Jesus he tells us something amazing about Jesus being born into this world. After explaining how God took on a human body and moved into the neighborhood, John tells us that Jesus reveals God to us (John 1:18). So, if we really want to know who God is and what he is like, then we can look at Jesus’ life and he demonstrates to us the true nature of God. An accurate picture of who God is and what he is like begins and ends with Jesus. The first four books of the New Testament are dedicated to introducing us to Jesus. In actuality, we can find him on every page of the Bible. When He is allowed to shape the picture our God, we end up drawn to an all-loving all-powerful God who is completely on our side. Blaise Pascal, a 15th century French mathematician, is attributed with saying, “God created man in his own image, then man returned the favor. Too often we project onto God the characteristics of other people, often authority figures, from our past. There has only been one human being who completely reflects who God truly is and that one is Jesus. My friend Lenny followed through and took the advice his mentor had given him. He began to pray ‘to whom it may concern.’ That was over thirty years ago, and today Lenny has a vibrant relationship with God. By being willing to take the action, Lenny came to an understanding and knowledge of God. Lenny began getting help from somewhere and thought it good to investigate the source of this help. He ended up looking to Jesus and has not looked back.

Blessings,
Marty Hale

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