There is this idea that if you hold no beliefs based on absolute truth that you are somehow a relativist.  Meaning that you think that everybody has their own unique truths.  Otherwise stated, a spiritual relativist is someone who doesn’t believe there is absolute truth but that truth is this thing that is different for everyone. But how can one know, the unknowable?  To make a relativist statement like that, is in a sense claiming to have the absolute truth in regards to relativistic ideas, is it not?  What if there is absolute truth?  What if there is a God out there who has only given us tiny indications of his/her existence through scripture and feelings and emotions and beliefs and other arguable ideas? He or she is knowable to the extent that she or he makes themselves known to us, I would suppose.  If that is the case and we believe that this God is all powerful, then how can we argue the Bible as the sole word of God?  How do we justify thousands of doctrinal statements made from reading this one book? As if God suddenly stopped existing or speaking after he spoke to the apostle John or Peter (depending on how you view the chronology).  How can we claim to have the truth, when it is really something we think we know for sure?  When all of our world views and point of views are reduced down to their basic common factors we are left with a lot of statements that sound more like “well I believe this because I just do.” There is nothing wrong with that, because ultimately no one knows anything for certain.  However, Jesus seemed certain when he said “ you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)  I don’t believe he was talking about truth as in the opposite of lies, but the truth that is God, sort of like the truth found in love. There is something real about love that goes beyond tactile realities; something nobler than the word noble can represent; something timeless, and forever about it.  We can’t really say that about too many things, now can we?  We are told that” God is love” (1 John 4:8) in the Bible.  Maybe the “truth” that scripture refers to here is this unknowable God that makes himself/herself known to us through these tiny little life experiences. Maybe love is God’s way of talking to us (his/her language) through the relationships that we have.  Is it possible that God speaks louder through relationship than any other media?  Could our friendships and other love relationships be the language of this unknowable God?  If this is possible, then my next question is “are we listening?” I know some will say “The Bible is all I need,” while single-handedly tossing relationships to the side one after the other in search of something better.  Some will say “God speaks directly to me through prayer; I don’t need someone else to tell me about him because I have a personal relationship with Jesus.”  But, is this really the only way God speaks -- only through prayer and the Bible?  Some will say even that “God speaks directly to me through Joel Osteen or John Piper, or Rob Bell, why should I listen to people who don’t have seminary degrees when it comes to God?” This may come as a surprise or it may even come off as a lie, but Joel, John and Rob do not have PhD s in speaking to God or hearing from God, nor are they any more equipped to do so than you or me.  God speaks through children, and he speaks through the disabled and through the homeless and through the drug addict and the millionaire, and everyone in between.  The only way to hear him/her in this way is to come in contact with others. This is what Jesus’ message on the Mount was all about isn’t it?  In Matthew 5 Jesus talks over and again, using demonstration after demonstration of this core message.  Read it.  I promise you it’s in there.   This truth if you will.  People are the most important sorts of things – people -- all people, everywhere.  Are you listening?  Does that mean that God does not want us to pray to him/her?  Of course it doesn’t.  Does it render the Bible as a useless historical document?  No way.  Should we give up on listening to good sermons and reading good books?  Again, that is not what I am saying here.  These are also ways that God speaks to us. It’s just that it seems that Jesus was pretty clear.  When it comes down to it, it’s not about doctrine.  It’s not about our beliefs.  It’s not about a personal relationship with Jesus, even.  It’s about us.  The Gospel is for US not God.  God is speaking to each of us now through the relationships in our lives, especially the broken ones.  For those of us who have ears to hear, oh please let us hear.