Last week I painted a picture of the Mountain of God. On this mountain we are warmed and energized by the same light. On this mountain, we move closer to God, closer to each another, closer to truth. There is no “us” and “them.” There is room for everyone. The mountain of God is not a religion. It is the end of religion, the triumph of the Kingdom of God.

The essence of the this Mountain is four relationships.

The relationship between you with God.

The relationship between you and your close friends.

The relationship between you and your neighbors.

The relationship between you and your world.

It all starts with you.

The Mountain of God Begins with You

As a teenager, the image of a tree planted by the water spoke to me.

He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,

Which yields its fruit in its season

And its leaf does not wither;

And in whatever he does, he prospers.

(Psalm 1:3)

I wanted to be a that tree. I wanted roots that went down deep into God. This was intensely personal.

The mountain of God begins with the individual. It is Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus. It is Matthew leaving the tax booth. It is a widow, grasping Jesus’ robe to be healed. It is Thomas proclaiming, “My Lord and my God!”

There is no universal adaptor for making a connection with God. Each connection is unique and corresponds with the nature of the person. I can’t tell you how to connect to God and you can’t tell me. Your soul’s connection with God is a sacred secret, “a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it” (Revelation 2:17).

Be Thyself

The only way you can experience God is as yourself.

Nature shows the way. Trees don’t try to be colorful like wildflowers. Stones don’t try to flow like water. Bears don’t try to sing. Birds don’t try to make honey. Nature’s glory is in the fact that everything is exactly what it is made to be. By being true to itself, every created thing, from the tiniest bug to the tallest mountain, becomes a brush stroke in a Divine masterpiece.

The most important thing you can be is yourself.

It’s Not Easy Being You

Being yourself is not as easy as it sounds. Human architects are everywhere, each one seeking to cram you into their design for the universe. If you don’t fall in line, you’ll ruin their picture.

Living on the mountain of God means regarding these human blueprints as the scribblings of a lunatic. It means refusing to be a brick in someone else’s wall. It means being true to your nature, which turns out to be the same as being true to God. Don’t expect this to be easy.

Religion Never Fits

Religions can’t make room for so much variety. They regard uniqueness as chaos. Only square bricks fit the design. You are given instructions for making a connection with God. The beliefs and behaviors that validate the connection are spelled out for you.

The result of this mass-produced, artificial connection with God is a mass-produced, artificial religious community that feels curiously like a modern shopping mall. Like malls, religious communities rely heavily on illusion. They are mostly false fronts.

But You Have a Home on God’s Mountain

The mountain of God is solid through and through. This is no mass production. There is not a single duplication. There is no illusion. The mountain of God is as wild as nature herself. Religion, with its static ideas of God and rigid blueprints, will never fit.

Read the gospels and notice something: The only conflict Jesus had on this earth was with religion. It was religion that killed him—or thought it did. Nothing on the mountain of God can ever die.

The Mountain of God is both free and orderly,