Jesus defines eternal life as
knowing God (Jn 17:3). What are
the ways? In how many different
ways can we know God, and
thus know eternal life? When I
take an inventory, I find twelve.

1. The final, complete, definitive
way, of course, is Christ, God
himself in human flesh.

2. His church is his body, so we
know God also through the
church.

3. The Scriptures are the church's
book. This book, like Christ
himself, is called "The Word of
God."

4. Scripture also says we can know
God in nature see Romans 1.
This is an innate, spontaneous,
natural knowledge. I think no
one who lives by the sea, or by a
little river, can be an atheist.

5. Art also reveals God. I know
three ex-atheists who say, "There
is the music of Bach, therefore
there must be a God." This too is
immediate.

6. Conscience is the voice of God. It
speaks absolutely, with no ifs,
ands, or buts. This too is
immediate. [The last three ways
of knowing God (4-6) are natural,
while the first three are
supernatural. The last three
reveal three attributes of God, the
three things the human spirit
wants most: truth, beauty, and
goodness. God has filled his
creation with these three things.
Here are six more ways in which
we can and do know God.]

7. Reason, reflecting on nature, art,
or conscience, can know God by
good philosophical arguments.

8. Experience, life, your story, can
also reveal God. You can see the
hand of Providence there.

9. The collective experience of the
race, embodied in history and
tradition, expressed in literature,
also reveals God. You can know
God through others' stories,
through great literature.

10. The saints reveal God. They are
advertisements, mirrors, little
Christs. They are perhaps the
most effective of all means of
convincing and converting
people.

11. Our ordinary daily experience of
doing God's will will reveal God.
God becomes clearer to see
when the eye of the heart is
purified: "Blessed are the pure of
heart, for they shall see God."

12. Prayer meets God—ordinary
prayer. You learn more of God
from a few minutes of prayerful
repentance than through a
lifetime in a library.
Unfortunately, Christians
sometimes have family fights
about these ways, and treat them
as either/or instead of both/and.
They all support each other, and
nothing could be more foolish
than treating them as rivals—for
example, finding God in the
church versus finding God in
nature, or reason versus
experience, or Christ versus art.

If you have neglected any of
these ways, it would be an
excellent idea to explore them.
For instance, pray using great
music. Or take an hour to review
your life some time to see God's
role in your past. Read a great
book to better meet and know
and glorify God. Pray about it
first.