Brushing God off as a young adult is not an uncommon occurrence. As teenagers, religious education seems a matter of academics like reading, writing, and arithmetic. Graduating high school is the permission slip to quit going to catechism classes. We leave home as fledglings seeking knowledge about everything and anything we find exciting. That does not often include higher education about God. Aspiring to become productive members of society, we grow up physically, mentally, and financially. Spiritually we remain childish. With this background, all too often, young adults embrace society’s spin on the pursuit of happiness, quit going to church, and become distanced from God. Some of us return matter-of-factly once married or as parents wanting a beloved infant to be baptized. It’s nothing personal. It’s tradition.

Armed with only a teenager’s perspective about God, Baby Boomers have children and grandchildren of Generation X and Generation Y (the Millennials) who follow the same religious lukewarm trend because their elders had very little spiritual knowledge to pass down.

As a Baby Boomer child, I was given the teachings of my Catholic faith, which I call the WHATs. Religiously educating the young in those days did not often include much detail or reasoning, which I call the WHYs behind the WHATs. Having no depth to my convictions, I had little interest in pursuing God as I left home and began life on my own. Needless to say, this “cradle Catholic” did not know our Creator very well.

I did not know what I did not know about God until I was in my thirties. Then I began to rekindle a rapport with Him based on childhood understandings. The relationship moved beyond a stagnant knowledge of Him into an active kinship with a very personal, deeply loving, heavenly Father. Our bond with God is meant to forever grow and develop in ways we cannot contemplate until we let Him take us there.

Our Father in Heaven expects us to seek Him sooner than later. This is not because He’s egotistical or needs us to seek Him, but for our own health and well-being as a whole person, body and soul. He makes Himself known so we can find Him. My eventual understanding and acceptance of God as reality in daily living brought forth an epiphany worth sharing: Life is more peaceful and fulfilling not so much because we accept Him as our God, but more so when we treat Him as such – everyday – in everything.

Within these pages you will find pieces of yourself, friends, and family that hit home, whether it is where you have been, where you are, or where you want to go spiritually. Hopefully, God Expects Me encourages you to let our Lord share with you beyond what you know of Him. It is meant to urge you to accept, with confidence, His open invitation to lead you further into all He desires for you through Him. God Himself will provide assistance to move the mountains of doubt, boredom, confusion, anger, or the status quo illusion of faith that may keep one from pursuing unfamiliar territory. Like any evolving relationship, it takes two. God has an open line for each and every one of us 24/7, but a “yes” is necessary from our end to have a clear connection.

For more, call on Him. He’s expecting you!