DaytonDailyNews.com

The word "organic" usually conjures up images of whole foods, chemical-free produce and soy lattes at Starbucks, but author and speaker Margaret Feinberg believes that it's a relevant expression for our relationship with God, too.

"Organic in essence means natural, pure and essential — isn't that so much of what we want in our relationship with God?" says Feinberg.

Margaret Feinberg, named by Charisma magazine one of the "30 Emerging Voices" who will help lead the church in the next decade, shares her rich insights about rediscovering a natural and healthy faith in her book, The Organic God (Zondervan, $16.99). Feinberg writes with personal and alluring prose that illuminates what it's like to connect with God in today's world.

The inspiration for The Organic God was borne out of a personal project that took Feinberg through the entire Bible — tediously journaling every passage that described the character of God. There's a danger in religion, Feinberg believes, that we will settle for a secondhand faith, one that looks polished on the outside but artificial.

"We know a lot about God, just like we know a lot about Brad Pitt or the president of the United States, without truly knowing him," Feinberg says. There's no short-cut or substitute for doing the work and research to know God ourselves. A pursuit that, for Feinberg, will always begin in the Scriptures.

Through her journaling, Feinberg discovered a big-hearted, amazingly wise, abundantly generous and deeply mysterious God. In Him we find our identity, we find out who we are, the Scripture and the study of God is a huge invitation into conformity to Christ.

And, Feinberg admits, sometimes it's the heavy-handed "why" questions that bottleneck our faith. But there comes a time when we have to move forward with all of our questions, baggage and uncertainties to experience God.

"We have to acknowledge that the why questions are fair, but if you allow the why questions to dominate you, they will rule you, weigh you down and destroy you," Feinberg says. We may never know the answer to all the questions but we can be the answer for someone else, through loving and serving the wounded people God puts in our path.

There are aspects of God we will never know but, Feinberg adds, "It's someone you can pursue for your whole life and never grow exhausted; we will never have God in the palm of our hands."

The Organic God invites readers to experience God with a fresh hunger, one that sheds potential familiarity and begins with a simple and purist agenda to know God, organically, through his word.

Brian Orme is an associate pastor at Community Church in West Milton and a freelance religion writer. Send e-mail to mjorme@gmail.com or read more at www.brianorme.com.