Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
New Visions
How to Find God’s Hiding Place

How to Find God’s Hiding Place

Last updated on: December 7, 2021 at 8:11 pm by Tom Rapsas

How to Find God’s Hiding Place 2021-12-07T20:11:14-07:00 Tom Rapsas

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Benjamin Davies via Unsplash

Have you ever had the feeling that God was missing in action? You feel the presence of God one moment, buoying your spirits, lightening your load. But the next day, or even a few moments later, the Divine has seemingly abandoned you, leaving you to deal with the challenges of life by yourself.

This feeling of abandonment isn’t unusual. It even struck the saintly Mother Teresa. For years, Teresa claimed she did not feel the presence of God in her life, only his absence. In her words “as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear.” But if you believe in God, and there’s no doubt that Mother Teresa did, it raises the question:

Where is God’s hiding place?

The answer may be found in a modern-day fable that has been told by Paulo Coelho and others. I’ll paraphrase it here. The story is about three sages who are tasked with hiding the secret of life from humankind. It goes like this:

One day the sages were discussing the secret of life and where they should hide it so that men and women could not find it.

Bury it under a mountain, one sage suggests. No, the others counter, they will find a way to dig up the mountain and uncover it.

Put the secret of life in the depths of the deepest ocean, another sage suggests. No, the others say, one day they will find a way to travel to the depths of the ocean and will find it there.

Put the secret inside them, suggests another, they will never think to look for it there. All the sages agreed, and so the secret of life was hidden within us.

Substitute “God” for “the secret of life”, and you can draw a direct line between the two, and it gets you wondering:

Could God’s secret hiding place be within us?

The idea that God is as close as our own breath has been sprinkled throughout the writings of the world’s great spiritual thinkers, often appearing as small diamonds within dense texts. The works of the 14th Century theologian Meister Eckhart can make for difficult reading, but one sentence of his speaks volumes:

No one has known God who has not known himself.

Know yourself and you will know God. What’s one to make of this? But the funny thing is this idea did not originate with Meister Eckhart. Almost a thousand years before him, one the world’s great philosophers had reached a similar conclusion. According to the Greek philosopher Socrates:

Our own self-knowledge is a knowledge of God.

If you take Paulo Cohelo’s tale of the three sages who hid the secret of life, and combine it with the thoughts of Eckhart and Socrates, you might make the following connections:

God is hiding within us.
The key to finding God is to know ourselves.
When we know ourselves, we know God.

The tricky part: knowing yourself.

At first glance, you might say, sure I know myself. You might fill in the blanks something like this: My name is <Pam> and I live in <Montana> and I <work in a bank>. But I believe what the great sages and philosophers were getting at here is something a little deeper. You have to look past the surface or public self, to a space beyond the ever-present, stage-hogging ego.

It’s the ego who might be dismissing this exercise right now. The reason? The ego doesn’t want to look too deeply into anything. It’s shallow and fearful of giving any ground to the true self, the person you at your core. The real you is often “the watcher” deep inside you, the silent one who sits back and observes.

Two clues that may help you find God.

I won’t pretend to have all the answers, I don’t. But here are two ways to get started on connecting with the place where God resides, the deepest part of your inner self. They sometimes work for me.

Find some solitude. We all need to take regular breaks from the constant thoughts, desires and fears that make up our everyday world. We need room for our soul to breathe. I’ve written before about my own practice which involves finding solitude where I can, sometimes waking before the household and sipping a cup of coffee while sitting in a comfortable chair. It has been said that silence is God’s language. In solitude, you may find this to be true.
Meditate or try centering prayer. They both have the ability to soften the sharpen edges of life and calm you. Author David Frenette describes centering prayer as “a state beyond walking, sleeping or dreaming.” It puts you in the right frame of mind to sense there is something greater out there, both within you and around you.

As a famous writer once said, “The secret to life is meaningless unless you discover it yourself.” So, no outsourcing this task to a close confidant, the latest spiritual bestseller or even to church. The work must be done by you and you only. Why not get started today?

Previous Post

December 1, 2021

Were the Earliest Christians Sipping Psychedelic Wine?

Next Post

December 16, 2021 The Untold Story of the Birth of Jesus

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 50+ Spirituality 60 Second Inspiration Activism Adversity Afterlife agape aging Aliens Angels Angels and aliens anger animism Astrology Atheists Attention Attitude Authenticity Awareness Awe Ayahuasca Balance Beginnings Being Present Belief Bhagavad Gita Bible birth of Jesus Blessings Bliss Bono Breathing Buddha Buddhism Calling cats Centered Centering Prayer Chakras Change Character Character and Aging Christ consciousness Christianity Christmas Church Civility commencement speeches commitments compassion Connecting with God Consciousness Contemplation Contemplative Prayer Contentment Conversations with God Coping Coping mechanisms Corinthians Coronavirus Covid creativity Daily practice Dalai Lama David Brooks David Frenette Death Deathbed visions Decisions determinism Discernment disconnecting Donald Shimoda Dreaming of the Dead dreams Drinking Easter Eastern religion Eckhart Tolle ego Elders Emerson Engagement Enlightenment everyday magic Evil Spirits Expectations experience Faith fate Fatima Fear Feel Finding God Fitness Fulfillment Gandhi Gary Zukav Generosity Giving Gnostic gospels Gnostics God God's will Golden Rule Good & Evil Gospel of Thomas Gospels Grace Gratitude Grief Growing Older Guardian Angels gumption Gurus Halloween Happiness health health and happiness Heaven Helping others High Strangeness Hinduism Holiday Season honesty Honor Hope Humility impostor syndrome inner music Inner Work Insights insomnia Inspiration Inspirational intuition Investing Jeff Bridges Jesus Jesus Christ John Templeton joy joy of life Justin Bieber Kaballah Kabbalah Karma Kindness koans Law of Attraction Life Life after Death Life and death Life Balance Life Hacks Life Lessons Life Path Life Philosophy Life Plan life purpose Life Rules Life Tips Life's Big Questions Lindsay Lohan Listening Living Intentionally Loneliness Love Magic Mark Twain Marriage Meaning of Life Meditation mentor Mentors Mid-Life Crisis Mindful Mindfulness Money Monks Multiverse Mysterious World mystical experience Mysticism Mystics Mythology Napoleon Hill Near Death Experience (NDE) New Thought New Year New Year's resolutions Noise Oprah out-of-body experience Parables Peace of mind philosophy Plant Intelligence Pope Francis Positive Thinking Prayer prayers for the spiritual Preachers Premonitions presence Prophecies Prophecy Prophets Psalms Purpose Purpose of Life quietude Quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Trine Reconnect Recovery reincarnation Relaxation Religion resolutions Resurrection Ritual Rituals Rules to Live By sadness Sam Harris Sandy Second Act Seeking self Self Mastery self-help self-improvement Seneca sermon sex shamans Sickness Silence Silence of God sleep small voice Smiling Social Activism solitude Soul Soul and Spirit Soul Awakening Spiritual Awakening spiritual beliefs spiritual guidance spiritual journey spiritual living spiritual path Spiritual philosophy Spiritual Practice Spirituality Spirituality and work Spooky Spirituality Stillness stoicism stoics Storytelling Stress Relief Success Suffering Suicide Surrender tao Thanks Thanksgiving the afterlife the bardo the Bible the Blues The Election the Kingdom the secret the self The Soul Thomas Keating Thomas Merton Thomas Moore Time Tony Robbins tradition UFOs Uncategorized Universe Values visualization Voice of God Wake Up Call Wake Up Call book Walls Walt Whitman Well-being Winter Blues Wisdom words to live by Work work/life balance worry Yogananda Zen

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 July 2012 April 2012 March 2012 January 2012 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 December 2009 November 2009

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does the name "Jesus" mean?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Teacher God is with us The Lord saves Prince of peace

Books by This Author Books by Wake Up Call

See All Titles »