Known

By Dan Tarrant

Can a Catholic have a personal relationship with God?

Can anyone really know God? Can we do anything other than make some guesses about God and hope for the best when we die? Does my life has a discoverable purpose?

If you've ever asked questions like these, wondered whether God has a place for you in his heart, or questioned whether there is room for you in the Catholic Church, you'll be touched by Dan Tarrant's witness.
Dan is open about his previous doubts about Christ, his journey through a New Age spirituality, the blessings he received in Protestant Churches and why God led him personally back to the Catholic Christian faith of his birth.

It's a story that will help you know Jesus yourself in a truly Catholic and personal relationship with God!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9781329864436

Book preview

Known

Known

Known

One Catholic’s Journey to Know God Personally

Dan Tarrant

Let us ask ourselves: how is my personal relationship with God?

- Pope Benedict XVI

ReEngaged Ministries

Choosing Christ personally

in the heart of the Catholic Church!

Introduction

Hi.  I'm Dan Tarrant.  And I'd like to go to Heaven. 

I'd like you to go to Heaven too – if that's ok to want.

How's that for an honest introduction? 

I'd also like my life to mean something.  I don't mean that I want to be famous or rich or powerful.  But I'd like something in this world to be better because I was here.  I'd like to love people well and love them in a way that actually makes a difference.  I'd also like to know the meaning of life – that larger meaning in life which we all share – and live in harmony with it.  Plus, I'd like to know the meaning of my life personally and live according to that meaning personally too. 

Am I asking for too much?  Does that sound far-fetched and crazy to you?  Is this the kind of thing that's only for a handful of lucky people?  Are the rest of us just supposed to stumble along, mutter to ourselves because no one else will listen, and carry on as another cog in the machinery of life that seems to benefit only those lucky few? 

Now, honestly I don't know why exactly I want all of this.  I just want it deep inside of me, in some place that I didn't manufacture on my own.  In some place that's very real, almost primordial if I'm allowed to use such a big word for it.

How about you?  Would you like your life to mean something?  Would you like to make it, not in the sense of being rich and famous but in the sense that all your sufferings, joys, successes and talents added up to something for someone?  Would you like to go to Heaven too, if you believe there is one? 

This book is for people on a journey like this.  A journey toward both Heaven in the next life and meaning while here on earth.  I'll share my story honestly with you.  Unpolished.  Unedited.  Undistorted.  Make of it what you will.  Feel free to judge it, hate it, love it or disregard it.  I won't be offended.  If my journey helps inform and support yours, that's great.  If it doesn't, just put it aside.  You have my complete permission.

What I believe

Well, I believe lots of things.  You might believe some of the same things.  You might not.  But I'll tell you my belief beneath my beliefs.

This is what I've come to believe at my core.  You already did make it.  And so did I.  It's just that often we don't see it yet.  I've come to believe that there really is someone for whom all of your successes, sufferings, joys, talents and decisions really do add up to something.  Something big.  Something that lasts for eternity.  That thing you're going through that no one really gets, it's gotten by that someone.  That suffering has meaning.  And your life will be remembered forever.  Maybe not by everyone.  But by the someone who matters more than everyone.  By God.  And I've discovered that he's certainly not a fairy tale.  He's not something made up to comfort you at night and to forget about in the morning.  He's the cause of the morning.  Heck, he's the cause of you. 

And I know once I say this next guy's name, half of the people reading this will tune out.  The book will close and hit the bookshelf for a later date or for never.  The free preview of the first chapter you might be reading somewhere online will signal to you in your mind that it's time to look for another book.  But I have to say his name.  So I hope this isn't goodbye.  I have to say his name because it's a part of my story.  Jesus.

I know a lot has been done in this person's name that confuses and divides people.  And it's sad, because all the clarity about my life and all the unity between myself and others has been found in him.  Maybe that's not the case for you right now.  It wasn't the case for me initially either because I had things a little twisted up in my mind.  I had a lot of pride mixed with a healthy dose of skepticism too.  But when I finally stumbled through all my roadblocks, really found him and accepted him as my God, he provided a clarity, a direction, a peace and a path toward better relationships with others I could have never discovered on my own. And he surprises me every day with more.  I believe if you keep reading or just keep looking (here or elsewhere), you'll discover all of this in him too.  Perhaps if you'd just stop listening to what others say about him and just start listening to what he says about himself, I bet he'd make sense to you.  He'd make a lot of sense perhaps – that's when he made sense to me.  In fact, I bet you'd wonder how you ever made it without him.  And my instinct is that you already know him personally deep down inside – it's just a matter of consciously recognizing as his that voice you already know.  So that's the other thing I believe in now at my core, that I didn't always accept.

Jesus.  

Maybe give him another shot, if you need to.  Maybe forget everything you were told and start fresh.  Those people who you think are wrong about him, might actually be wrong.  And those things you know must be true about him, they might actually be true.  It's at least worth investigating, isn't it?

So that's what I believe. 

I believe you have been discovered. I believe you have made it big already.  I believe someone is paying attention.  Close attention.  Someone you've probably always known was there, but maybe never fully turned to or tuned into.  Someone who knows everything already.  And I believe that the Someone paying close attention to you has a name:  Jesus.

A personal relationship with God

I've also come to see that it’s not enough for this omniscient God to know everything about you.  Jesus is someone who wants to know you and be known by you personally.  You're fully understood.  Someone does get you.  Someone is fully aware of it all.  But he wants more than to know about you from afar while being kept at arm’s length or being kept outside of your life all together. He wants you to know him, not just know about him, but really know him.  And he wants to know you, not just know about you but really know you one on one. He wants a relationship.  He wants to close the gap between you and him.

I’ve found he doesn’t just want you to have your facts straight so you can pass some academic test at the gates of Heaven.  He wants to be known by you, not in terms of you comprehending some data about him from a distance, but in terms of you having a relationship with him that is personal. A relationship where he is genuinely involved in your life. Learning this truth completely changed my life.

I realized that God wants more than my knowledge of him intellectually, he wants to be welcomed into my life personally.  He wants more than just some shared facts, he wants a shared life.  A shared life where he gives input to us and we give our hearts to him.  And that shared life requires more than his omniscience.  In a world where he has given us a free will which he will not violate, it requires our permission.  You’re in the driver’s seat of this relationship now, not him.

God wants friendship

I’ve also learned that God is completely and unconditionally committed to this relationship with you and me.  No matter what you’ve done.  He knows everything about you and still wants in on your life!  He’s only wondering if you’re as committed to a relationship with him.  He not only wants you to realize he knows about you, as comforting as that can be.  He wants to be known by you in a relationship where you freely invite him into your life in response to his unconditional invitation to you into his life.  He wants a friendship, not just an understanding of facts.  He wants to be truly known by you while you are truly known by him – as a friend would know a friend.  When I came to terms with this, I was dumbfounded.  Simply dumbfounded.  In fact, I still am today.  It’s amazing; give him that and he really will take it from there.

There’s a big difference between knowing about your favorite athlete, musician or president because you read a book about him, and knowing your favorite athlete, musician or president personally because you are good friends.  I’ve realized that God wants friendship.  God wants to be known not from a distance and not in abstract theory, but like friends who know each other through the experience of being a part of each other’s lives.  Jesus expresses his clear desire for this friendship in the Bible when he says:  Love one another, just as I love you.  The greatest love you can have for your friends is to give your life for them.  And you are my friends... (John 15:12-14 GNT).  If death for another doesn’t reveal a desire for friendship, what else can?

Yet despite this desire to know us and befriend us, I also learned that God won't force himself on you or me.  He won't force you to discover him.  He really will humbly let you ignore him, avoid him, doubt him, refuse him and remain outside of a relationship with him for whatever reason you have