Tuesday, May 15, 2012

my god v. THE God.

There's no doubt God has a place in many of the people's lives and families in my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska as I see several churches, buildings big and small. Each with varying titles and negative or positive or dissenting connotations, depending on whether or not we care to disagree. Or agree, for that matter.
However, if all of these God believers lined up and saw this Nebraska sunset I'm sure most of them would attribute it to God's beauty and I'm left asking myself: How does this happen?

I've heard "God always" does this and "God never does that" and I've seen Him back up campaigns for "the left" and "the right",  financial plans, a variety of church missions, and the lifestyles of people that seemingly conflict... and follow the same God. 

In the midst of these varying definitions of who God is and what he wants for our lives, there's varying reactions to recognizing this God who lives within distinct and different doctrine, diet, parenting, financing,  political, and lifestyle choices.

People may place God on a judging throne while yearning to discover what's a "no-no" and what's a "yes-yes"down here on Earth until learning the hard way. 

Others may accepting that God is a loving God and with an "anything goes" sort of mentality. 

Some may dismiss Him entirely because the hypocritical, unpredictable followers of God and the church as a whole are difficult to accept.  

All of these reactions are missing the point.

I believe God is a loving, gracious God and that He does want us to do the right thing and good for our world. 

In the Old Testament book of wisdom, Ecclesiastes, we can read:

“As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.” (Ecclesiastes 11:5) 

I'm struck in awe in God because he is (for lack of a better word) awesome... and He's also difficult to define and understand. I also believe that the life Jesus lived was a gift and glimpse of God himself:

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)

When I read the first chapter of John, when Jesus comes enters the story and the relationship between God and humankind completes:

1) I'm given hope because "grace" and "truth" are what I am constantly yearning for in all of these complex interpretations of God within religion and lifestyle and politics. I don't have to stand confused, rather, I've been given an example. Straight-up. No excuses.

2) I'm humbled in the flat on my face, ashamed sort of way because the self-sacrificing-radically-different-than-the-rest-of-the-world-life Jesus lived is far from the one that I am living.  

While I do have my own opinions and lifestyle choices that reflect my interpretation of God and while I do think it's essential to follow our convictions in boldness I am finding God is not a some "thing" that I can define or use to justify my actions, judgements, and opinions. Rather, he's living among us and asking us to drop our (my) agenda of control and to humbly accept the things we cannot understand while walking in the perfect example of Christ's life of grace and truth. 

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