Who Is He?

I think we have ben carrying around a distorted image of God.

We hold him like a crumbled and faded photograph in our pants pockets.

We pull him out to consider the lines of his face, the depth of his gaze.

We compare photos and nod stoically at the slight differences.

We roll our eyes at the people who carry bright and vivid tattoos of this god on their chests - we despise their boldness.... and we envy it.

We teach classes on the identity and theology of God.

We hold debates over the reality of the man in the photographs.

We tell each other that we must ask, in the right way of course, for this one dimensional god to “show up.”

He must be off somewhere, reading his scriptures and waiting, like an impatient Father, for us to finally use the right phrase to earn his Presence.

Ah, yes. We are the followers of a god who lives outside of His people, yet within the stone walls of a church.

This god makes some people holier than others; some people smarter than others; some people more lovable than others.

But don’t forget to swallow your disgust and shake the hand of a dirty and weary man holding a cardboard sign.

The god of the photos has demanded our sacrifice.

This god lives on the mountains of our lives; forever out of reach; completely intangible.

He cowers in the corners of our souls, waiting for his turn to speak.

The sound of our pride mostly drowns him out.

This god is more concerned with budgets and buildings; programs and teachings, than with the poor and the broken.

But we’ve made this god out of air. He is wispy and explainable.

He fits. He makes sense out of our five year plans.

What about the God of caves and valleys?

Of deserts and wild waves?

Of multiple identities clustered into one Being like grapes on a vine?

Of mystical realities we know nothing of?

Of timelessness?

Of fierce battle and unexplainable depths?

What about the God we cannot understand?

What about the God we have all been longing for, but have been overlooking our whole lives?

Is the god we serve the same God who breathed life into a man made of dust and earth?

Is this the same God who placed countless flaming stars into a perfect and precise pattern in the Universe?

Is this the God who defeated armies and crushed Kingdoms?

Is this the same God who sat with a broken shepherd in a damp cave and wove songs of hope and deliverance into his soul?

Is this the same God who sustains life and creation without every faltering or growing weary?

Is this the same God who separated and abandoned himself to rescue a feeble and failing Creation?

Because the God in the crumbled photograph who fits so neatly in our pants pockets cannot be the same God who holds everything in the palm of his hand.

Either we hold God, or he holds us.

In considering the lives we live, the community we call church and the hope we set our futures on, we must consider the God who sits on the throne of our very lives.

I ask you this question hoping that it will spark a very real and deep investigation - who is the God you live for? Is he a photograph; someone you know little about, but is easily served?

Or is he unexplainable, undeniable, breathtaking, the Rescuer, the mystical God of breath and spirit?

This is part of life on planet earth. This is part of the human existence. We question, we grow, we learn, we change.

So, let’s change.