Amongst such a plethora of possible answers to the above question, how can I even begin to identify the right answer?

But it is not as though I am the first person to begin this journey.
Over millennia, people have struggled with these questions and have found answers that they were convinced were right, and they succeeded in convincing others that they were right, and in this way they created religion. But different people found different answers, and founded different religions, and different subsets of religions, and as they continued to develop their conclusions they began to find them so incompatible with the conclusions of other religions/denominations that they sometimes killed each other as a result.
If God exists, can He be found in this confusion, perversity and misery? Surely not!
But, if God exists, could He be found anywhere else?
Or perhaps, if God exists, can He be found at all?
Taking these questions in reverse order, if God does exist, and if He has any sort of plan for me and my life, then it must be possible to find Him. If I cannot find Him, then to all intents and purposes, for me He doesn't exist. So pursuing this question proved futile to me.
To tackle then, the second question: Can He be found outside of the vast confusing maelstrom of existing religions? (And within this I include everything that is New Age) My conclusion was that if God exists, I would not be the first to find Him - He did not create all of this just for me. So others must have found Him before me.
And therefore - as abhorrent as it may seem that God may be found amongst what seems from the outside to be bigotry, delusion and confusion - if He exists to be found, that is exactly where He must be.
But within so many mutually incompatible, and yet strongly held, beliefs, where should I begin looking?
At the same time as I was wrestling with these questions, we moved to a little village. We wanted to become integrated into village life - to do the whole 'village-thing'. In the centre of the village was a church, and we started to go there one Sunday a month - for family service - to do the 'village-thing'. And I found that some of the sermons, and some of the hymns, gave me further things to think about and further bits of the jigsaw puzzle started to fit into place. So I felt if I was going to go looking for God, I might as well start there.
Within the Christian church there is a prayer to become a Christian, which goes something like: "Lord Jesus Christ, I am sorry for the things I have done wrong in my life. I know you died on the cross to save me from my sins, and I now ask your forgiveness and turn from everything which I know is wrong. Please come into my life and fill me with your Holy Spirit". But I didn't start with that prayer - I guess I have never been one for front doors; I like to skirt around the back a little first.
As I started to read up on this nominal faith of my country of birth, I began to understand what these words really mean. Accepting that Jesus' death could save me from my sins meant accepting that Jesus himself was God, and that my sins were in reality deviations from His will. Turning from wrong, and accepting Him into my life meant subjugating my decisions and actions to His. In my mind, praying 'the prayer' translated into 'Whatever You tell me to do, I will do, whatever it is!' I began to see the prayer as a frightening thing.
But why? There is much more evidence that Jesus existed and was 'good', than for virtually any other contemporary historical event that we now take for granted. Many people have sincerely prayed similar versions of this prayer over centuries, and those with a strong faith who I have met or have read about were essentially 'good' people. If God does exist, then would a 'good' person lie about Him or try to usurp Him?
And yet that prayer continued to worry me. Somewhere in the back of my mind was the idea that I was signing over my will to a 'bad' force. Occasionally, when I had reasoned with myself enough, I would get to a point where I would pray: "Lord, if you were to clearly to ask me to do something now, I would do it, whatever it is" but each time I would be holding something back - I didn't really mean it.
I grew to understand more about the Christian faith, and about Christians, and about people who called themselves Christians. I came to see how easily what sets out 'good' gets distorted into 'bad', and to know what was meant by the 'narrow path'. I began to be able to differentiate God from the people who try to act in His name (and also people who simply think they are).
And I began to see a greater and deeper wisdom behind it all. And at the end of the day, if I was going looking for God, I wasn't going to find Him on equal terms.
And eventually, after about another six months, still full of trepidation, I prayed 'the prayer' and I meant it. I meant 'whatever'! I trusted that if He existed then He would have His reasons, and they would be 'good' even if I thought they were wrong. I really meant 'whatever'!
And as I prayed it, and really meant it, I felt His presence, and I felt within the core of my being a sense that He didn't want me to do anything except be willing to do what He asked. I felt that I had found God, and that He loved me, and that He understood me, and that He loved me despite understanding me.
And yes I am sure the rationalists could find another explanation for what happened, but then, if you don't believe in God you have to find another explanation - it doesn't make it any more true.
And since that point, there have been other doubts, and there have been other confirmations, and I have begun to realise that 'finding God' is a journey and not an event.
So which route should I have chosen?
About six months after praying 'the prayer' for real, I was wrestling with an ethical dilemma. It was one of those grey areas where right and wrong are not clear, and at the heart of it was a question over loyalty to my employer or loyalty to my friend. As I prayed, half asleep, I had the impression of a word continuously repeated in a passage in the bible, and the numbers 31, 8, 24 were in my mind, and the book 'Ezekiel' - not one which I had ever read. And sure enough, chapter 31 was all about trees, and the 24th word of the 8th verse was 'trees'. It was all about pride, and I know I struggle with that, but I couldn't for the life of me see what it had to do with the current issue. I tried, and I tried, but it was all tenuous. I kept going back to it, and the 24th word of the 8th verse, and then I noticed it had a little NIV cross reverence letter. I couldn't get any further than where I was, so I looked it up - Genesis 30:37 - one of only two readings in the bible where somebody begins to 'cheat' their employer with God's blessing.
God knows I struggle with doubts, and that at times I can be really creative in finding rational explanations that exclude Him. Through the experience outlined above, He gave me a spiritual confirmation that I couldn't rationalise, and He gave it to me through prayer and the Bible. God is big - far bigger than the human intellect can encompass.
I don't really know how many routes you can get to Him by, but I do know that He found me on the path that I took, and that He confirmed that it was the path for me, and that I am to follow it with all my heart. And I also know that I am to believe it is the only path. I don't know why I am to believe that, but I do know that each time I struggle with the path, if I focus on the path and accept it as right and my prejudices as wrong, I am forced to wrestle new insights from God, and I learn something new, and I grow.
And perhaps it is the only path. That conclusion worries me a lot, but He is greater and wiser than I am - I simply have to play my part as best I can, and to trust in Him for the rest.
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