The Details of God
What has driven so many people and especially so many modern young adults away from the church? And not just away, but RUNNING away from the church?
The God that I was told about growing up was one who helped Noah build an Ark, one who made the Christmas story happen, one who was in the sky watching me...a little bit like Santa...checking in on me to see if I was being good or bad.
Can we get past this? Can the church get past this? Can I get past this and grow into a deeper understanding of God?
It makes God feel like a distant figure just watching whats going on down here on Earth.
But what if God isn't really like that?
What if the God we have always heard described as a man, is actually a spirit? A spirit of peace, of love, of forgiveness...that flows, dances, and winds God's way powerfully and mysteriously through humanity. And then, we choose, as human beings, whether or not we want to "tune in" to this spirit called God. If we tune in, we may call ourselves spiritual, or Christian.
I don't believe Jesus was born from a virgin. I have researched some history of the Bible and found that the stories of the New Testament are many times purposefully placed to be fulfillments of the Old Testament so one would believe in Jesus as their "king." But that doesn't make me any less a believer of God. It just means I might view Jesus differently. I'm still Christian. But I might talk about my Christianity a different way. I probably talk about Jesus in a different way too. Yet I still believe in the powerful ways Jesus reached out to people in love, accepting who they were at that moment. Thats something worth believing in.
My faith is such a mystery. I don't have all the answers. Never will. But I do believe in God...a God who calls all of us to be active in social justice, practicing forgiveness, and living in love. I just don't, and probably never will, work out all the details of who God is. I don't want to have God figured out. And maybe, since I'm human, and God is God, thats the way it should be.
Annette
The God that I was told about growing up was one who helped Noah build an Ark, one who made the Christmas story happen, one who was in the sky watching me...a little bit like Santa...checking in on me to see if I was being good or bad.
Can we get past this? Can the church get past this? Can I get past this and grow into a deeper understanding of God?
It makes God feel like a distant figure just watching whats going on down here on Earth.
But what if God isn't really like that?
What if the God we have always heard described as a man, is actually a spirit? A spirit of peace, of love, of forgiveness...that flows, dances, and winds God's way powerfully and mysteriously through humanity. And then, we choose, as human beings, whether or not we want to "tune in" to this spirit called God. If we tune in, we may call ourselves spiritual, or Christian.
I don't believe Jesus was born from a virgin. I have researched some history of the Bible and found that the stories of the New Testament are many times purposefully placed to be fulfillments of the Old Testament so one would believe in Jesus as their "king." But that doesn't make me any less a believer of God. It just means I might view Jesus differently. I'm still Christian. But I might talk about my Christianity a different way. I probably talk about Jesus in a different way too. Yet I still believe in the powerful ways Jesus reached out to people in love, accepting who they were at that moment. Thats something worth believing in.
My faith is such a mystery. I don't have all the answers. Never will. But I do believe in God...a God who calls all of us to be active in social justice, practicing forgiveness, and living in love. I just don't, and probably never will, work out all the details of who God is. I don't want to have God figured out. And maybe, since I'm human, and God is God, thats the way it should be.
Annette
Oh Annette! Maybe I should attend one of your theology meetings. I wasn't too sure of what your views on religion were but I think you may be closer to my stance then I thought..... however I may be a bit farther off and don't want to offand anyone.
ReplyDelete