Spiritual Synthesis 1: The Path of Belief

While reading my book today, I came across two related striking revelations.  As the good Jesuit author says, there are many paths to finding God, and anyone can be on any path at any point along the journey.  My current overarching path is the Path of Belief.  I grew up in the Catholic faith, and never had a seriously doubtful time with God.  Oh yes, I've had plentiful opportunities to defect from religious institution but I chose to stay.  All in all, this is a relatively functional way to find God, IF (and that's a big "if") you know the negative attributes of said path.  There is one such negative attribute that I noticed today.  This informational factoid may seem like plain common sense, but do not underestimate its sly demeanor.  Here it is, big revelation number 1: sojourning on the path of belief may anesthetize the vagabond so much that the believing is wrongly done to an artificially fabricated god.  In essence, if your faith has been in God your entire life, it is quite possible for faith to become routine.  In this routine lull period (spanning a few days, months, years, or shamefully a lifetime), one loses their relationship with God.  God is many things: God of Infinite Wisdom, God of Eternal Judge, God of Seeking, God of Surprises, etc; but God is not passive.  God is not a set of purely dogmatic ideals created by a religious institution; this is the "artificial" god.  Some may know what I am describing.  You pray every night, but you are praying to an empty room with yourself, for you are "artificial" god.  You almost out right lose your ability to notice opportunities to act out God's will.  "Artificial" god has no will, he is complacency.  One cannot have a relationship with "artificial" god for he is the sole creation of a selfish human brain.  Those, such as myself, that have fallen into this trap must realize that God seeks a conscious relationship with you.  A relationship means spending time with God, aka. prayer.  Real prayer means letting down your defenses and allowing an intimate soulful connection from God.  Revelation 2 for today is that I have drifted down this path.  Although very bad if left unchecked, this path is not inescapable.  I have realized that I need to see God.  Not physically, but rather see Him in the right viewpoint.  God is not limited to dogma and morals.  God is too big for religion to contain.  Just remember, if you find yourself down this path, take the antidote right away.  Have a meaningful outside-of-the-box chat with God.