Campfires can be sacred places. I have a lot of memories of sitting around them as a young boy with my guys. Sometimes, after the darkness was full, after we decided that stump just outside our dancing ring of light wasn’t actually a wolf and certainly not a wolf-man, some budding theologian would ask something along the lines of, “Do y’all think God is real?”

That’s a great question for a twelve year old to ask his friends but truth is it’s hard for a young fellow to process, even with all the holy whispers that were all around; friends, a good fire, a bazillion stars, and a singing forest. I would usually simply answer, “Yea, sure.” That wasn’t because of much reflection on my part. It was mostly to reduce my chances of going to Hell. Evidence suggests that accidentally grabbing the wrong end of a stick in a fire has a way of making one want to avoid burning forever.

Now days, in the third stage of life,(with a different idea and experience of hell) I am ready with a better answer to the question. Life is real, creation is real, love is real and for me that is a lot of footprints that help make me comfortable saying that God is absolutely real. But, tweak that question from long ago a bit and it becomes a little more troubling. How about, “Do y’all think your God is real? Or, do you file God in the religious compartment of your life denying his presence in the most real parts of your experience?” Now that’s a strong question for any age.

More and more I am convinced that there are three connected parts to authentic spirituality, all of them committed to embracing reality. They are; seeking God as God is not as you wish God to be, owning that you are who you are, and receiving life as it is not as you wish it was.

It’s my experience that this stance requires a little courage. Like most folks, I like the idea that with a little more effort I can get my life straightened out and I have my wishes about how I want life to be and it makes me more than a little anxious when things aren’t going the way I want them. Trials can be disconcerting. Same with my relationship with the Creator. I often get pretty comfortable with my current beliefs and way more than a little anxious when they are threatened. I like it when life is safe, God is figured out, and things are under control. Of course, that is not reality. It is illusion. We meet the real Christ in truth, not in pretending.

I invite you to consider what Jesus meant when he said, “I am the Truth.” I believe that it means that when we seek truth, reality, not illusion; we can trust that at the end of our search we will find Christ. Truth is, God is beyond being grasped, I am who I am, and my genuine experience of God is found in my real life.

It is said that St. Francis of Assisi often spent entire nights praying “Who are you?” along with “Who am I?” Think about it, all night seeking to receive the real God, wrestling to become his real self, in real life. That’s the real path.