Finding Freedom in Love: Haresh's Spiritual Journey

One day my father gave me a book. It was an old book, the cover looked beaten and torn. The pages were thin and brown from the years of being read. The writing was just as worn and ancient. There were some words I could not understand, but it didn’t matter. My father knew what he meant and he knew how to translate them into language I could understand.

I still remember every word he said, even though I can’t quite read them anymore myself.

“This is a very special book, my son” he said “It contains the words of our Lord Jesus Christ himself. They are not just words, they are instructions on how to live your life.”

The book was called the Bible and my father had given it to me when I was twelve years old. For years I had read it every night before going to sleep. At first I read it because my father told me to do so, then as time went by I read it because I wanted to know more about this Jesus Christ that my father spoke about so often.

One thing that puzzled me, however, was why there were so many different versions of this same book, all claiming to be authentic. There were all kinds of translations: King James Version, New International Version, Revised Standard Version, etc... None of them seemed quite right to me and that made me worry whether my own translation did justice to the original words in their correct context. More importantly I wondered whether Jesus would actually approve of any of these translations in the first place?

That is why one day I decided to go back home and speak with my father again about this issue.

“Father, I have been reading the Bible for many years now and there are so many different versions out there... How can we know which one is more accurate than the other? Why can’t we have only one version that everyone can agree on?”

Surprisingly enough he laughed at my question: “What makes you think there could ever be only one authentic translation or interpretation? The Bible is not a finite text that can be confined within rigid boundaries set by us mere mortals! Rather it is an infinite book whose true meaning lies beyond our limited human understanding!” He paused for a moment to reflect on his own answer and then continued: “Besides if there were only one translation then people might think it represents the only true understanding available which would be wrong in itself because the Bible can never be fully understood by us humans! God does not reveal all of his secrets to us; he expects us to discover them for ourselves through faith! Otherwise what kind of gift would that be? If God wanted us to know everything beforehand then why did he bother creating us at all? That would be like giving a child a toy without first explaining how to play with it! Without faith we are nothing more than lifeless puppets dancing blindly on God's strings but with faith we become co-creators who bring life into this world by acting upon His love! In fact without faith we wouldn’t even exist in the first place! This is how God brought forth life in this world; He spoke His word at its creation and brought forth everything from nothingness just like He promised Abraham when He made him His covenant partner at Mount Moriah! A covenant partner does not simply receive things as gifts; rather she acts according to her free will in order to receive those very gifts! So too God created this world through His Word instead of creating it from nothing; He chose instead to act upon His own promise instead of merely speaking His word alone as so many people claim today... And now He expects us too act upon our own promises in order bring forth new life into this world through our own actions based on our own free will... Think about it son: if you are going on a journey would you rather follow someone else's directions or would you prefer knowing where you are going yourself by following your own inner compass? It doesn't matter whether you agree with that person's advice or not; what matters is that you find your way through your own efforts... You must choose for yourself or else your whole journey becomes meaningless; your destination ceases to exist because you never arrived there at all! That doesn't mean you should ignore others along the way because they might have something valuable for you along the way but rather means that you should listen carefully with an open mind and then decide for yourself whether their guidance is worth taking or not... We must never lose sight of our goal but we must also remember that each step reveals something valuable along the way... So why don't we all work together towards the same goal while discovering something new together along the way? Why do people insist on pushing forward their own views while ignoring everyone else? Isn't life too short for such rigid thinking? Isn't truth too precious for such stubbornness? After all how much longer will we continue believing in false idols when God has already revealed himself unto us through his Son Jesus Christ?! False idols die but God lives forever..."