So this is God for me
I wanted to say a little about the God I know - my God as I know him. I know him from personal experience, reading scripture and studying at seminary. I know him, at least in part, because I believe I have been communing with him for 20 years and from following Jesus, the great revealer of God, for many of those years.
I had my first encounter with God reading Native American literature. And now that I know God better, I see a lot of him in the accounts of the Native Americans deep respectful relationship with the Great Father Spirit. Their love for nature and life culminated in a love for the creator and protector of it all. He was the creator of all the beauty and bounty available for us small humans living in a world of wonders. I am sure this ruffles some feathers, but I think God meets people where they are. The boundaries of religion are man made - I don't think God need respect human constructs. But if you are wondering, I identify as a Jesus follower, because I have come to believe that Christian is too nebulous a term in Western society. When people ask, yes, I'm a Christian, but if they give an open ear I will explain that that Christian is too generic a label for me. After all, most of the world views all western people as Christians - Madonna and all.
I was reintroduced to church in my early 20's and began to get an idea of who God was through the wise teachings of a good pastor. Soon I began reading the Christian scriptures, Old Testament and New. I was hungry for it, reading it for hours every night before bed. I had this hunger for many years, and the scriptures were a treasure of God's character and personality revealed in his interactions with men and women over roughly a thousand years of history.
I did not search the scriptures for what was wrong and what was right, how to act, what to do to get to heaven. No, I searched the scriptures for the character of God.
I was struck by just how immense and awesome and powerful he was in the Old Testament. He was was a force to be reckoned with, but this force was shot through with humility, emotion, and motivated by love. It was a creative force, bringing the beauty we all take for granted too often, out of nothing. I believe that "The Big Bang" was the point at which God took paintbrush to canvas and began a process that eventually led to all we know. So he is an artist as well as a scientist and mathematician. Versed in physics and subatomic particles - he knows how it all works because he invented it.
But this God I know, he is a person too. He has the desire to love for love's sake, and to be loved by me. He pursued me for many years, stood beside me when times got rough, and his still small voice whispered comfort to me in my soul - as a calm voice in the torrent of my troubled thoughts, and through his words revealed to men in scripture.
As I read the New Testament I began to accept that Jesus was the first born of the "sons of God." (Remember that time and its order means nothing to God, who is above/beyond time.) So I began to look for the qualities of God in the teachings of Jesus and in his way of being. From this, I learned many things about the God I came to know. He was, first, consumed with love for other human beings. He always had the time to talk one on one with anyone who would take the time to give him their attention. He had infinite time to stop and heal people afflicted with all sorts of illnesses. And whether those were miracles or enhancements of actual events by the authors of the New Testament, that is for each individual believer to decide, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because he was teaching us all a lesson - how to love. And he is God, teaching us in person. By example he showed me how, in order to be great, I was to be a servant to others (and servant, a slave laborer, was indeed the lowest position in his society). He said that the first shall be last and the last will be first, as the kingdom of Earth (and man) is turned upside down - it is the scandal of the Kingdom Of God. He said we are to be like little children with our trust in the Father. And God is the Father, for the reasons we have largely forgotten: that the father passes on his wisdom, his masculinity and way of life to his sons. People can say something of the character of the son because they knew the father - and vice versa. All of us who trust in God, men and women, are sons of God in the lineage of Jesus. We are like him.. frail and faulty as we are at it. God presides over my life as much as I will let him, taking the bad I must endure and turning it to something good, something that was the best possible outcome. Just as he created all of creation and called it good, so he continually creates in my life and in the beauty around me. That is the God I know, the God I have experienced within and beyond the bounds of the human construct of Christianity. He is supreme, just, a warrior, but also a poet, artist, scientist, and tender lover of his people. With this creative force with a personality, presiding over all that exists and is yet to exist, how can I do anything else but be dumbstruck in awe of him. How can I do anything else but look for him in the circumstances and beauty that is all around me, every moment, every chance I get. That, I believe, is what it means to "pray unceasingly" - look for God in every moment and commune with him throughout your day. It is free, as all the best things in life are. All it takes is intention and an open mind.
I had my first encounter with God reading Native American literature. And now that I know God better, I see a lot of him in the accounts of the Native Americans deep respectful relationship with the Great Father Spirit. Their love for nature and life culminated in a love for the creator and protector of it all. He was the creator of all the beauty and bounty available for us small humans living in a world of wonders. I am sure this ruffles some feathers, but I think God meets people where they are. The boundaries of religion are man made - I don't think God need respect human constructs. But if you are wondering, I identify as a Jesus follower, because I have come to believe that Christian is too nebulous a term in Western society. When people ask, yes, I'm a Christian, but if they give an open ear I will explain that that Christian is too generic a label for me. After all, most of the world views all western people as Christians - Madonna and all.
I was reintroduced to church in my early 20's and began to get an idea of who God was through the wise teachings of a good pastor. Soon I began reading the Christian scriptures, Old Testament and New. I was hungry for it, reading it for hours every night before bed. I had this hunger for many years, and the scriptures were a treasure of God's character and personality revealed in his interactions with men and women over roughly a thousand years of history.
I did not search the scriptures for what was wrong and what was right, how to act, what to do to get to heaven. No, I searched the scriptures for the character of God.
I was struck by just how immense and awesome and powerful he was in the Old Testament. He was was a force to be reckoned with, but this force was shot through with humility, emotion, and motivated by love. It was a creative force, bringing the beauty we all take for granted too often, out of nothing. I believe that "The Big Bang" was the point at which God took paintbrush to canvas and began a process that eventually led to all we know. So he is an artist as well as a scientist and mathematician. Versed in physics and subatomic particles - he knows how it all works because he invented it.
But this God I know, he is a person too. He has the desire to love for love's sake, and to be loved by me. He pursued me for many years, stood beside me when times got rough, and his still small voice whispered comfort to me in my soul - as a calm voice in the torrent of my troubled thoughts, and through his words revealed to men in scripture.
As I read the New Testament I began to accept that Jesus was the first born of the "sons of God." (Remember that time and its order means nothing to God, who is above/beyond time.) So I began to look for the qualities of God in the teachings of Jesus and in his way of being. From this, I learned many things about the God I came to know. He was, first, consumed with love for other human beings. He always had the time to talk one on one with anyone who would take the time to give him their attention. He had infinite time to stop and heal people afflicted with all sorts of illnesses. And whether those were miracles or enhancements of actual events by the authors of the New Testament, that is for each individual believer to decide, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because he was teaching us all a lesson - how to love. And he is God, teaching us in person. By example he showed me how, in order to be great, I was to be a servant to others (and servant, a slave laborer, was indeed the lowest position in his society). He said that the first shall be last and the last will be first, as the kingdom of Earth (and man) is turned upside down - it is the scandal of the Kingdom Of God. He said we are to be like little children with our trust in the Father. And God is the Father, for the reasons we have largely forgotten: that the father passes on his wisdom, his masculinity and way of life to his sons. People can say something of the character of the son because they knew the father - and vice versa. All of us who trust in God, men and women, are sons of God in the lineage of Jesus. We are like him.. frail and faulty as we are at it. God presides over my life as much as I will let him, taking the bad I must endure and turning it to something good, something that was the best possible outcome. Just as he created all of creation and called it good, so he continually creates in my life and in the beauty around me. That is the God I know, the God I have experienced within and beyond the bounds of the human construct of Christianity. He is supreme, just, a warrior, but also a poet, artist, scientist, and tender lover of his people. With this creative force with a personality, presiding over all that exists and is yet to exist, how can I do anything else but be dumbstruck in awe of him. How can I do anything else but look for him in the circumstances and beauty that is all around me, every moment, every chance I get. That, I believe, is what it means to "pray unceasingly" - look for God in every moment and commune with him throughout your day. It is free, as all the best things in life are. All it takes is intention and an open mind.
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