Think of words that you might use to describe God.
Big, strong, just, angry, fierce, friend, father, avenger, protector, redeemer/saviour, punisher, creator, teacher, destroyer, guide, rescuer, distant, absent, judgemental.
In the Bible, God shows us a lot of faces. Many of them are quite different from one another. Each face shows us a different facet of God’s “personality”.
I think that how we react to God, how we relate to him, is deeply colored by the face of God that we see most often…..the vision of God that we carry with us every day.
If the face of God that you carry with you every day is an angry, fierce, distant, judgemental, absent, punisher……. then it is not hard to understand why you would not seek him out. It is easy to see why you would distance yourself from him. This is the face of God that Dawkins sees in his book “The God Delusion”.
Many people find this vision of God so disturbing that they go one step further. They either ignore him completely……or they deny his existence.
On the other hand, if the face of God that you keep in front of you is a friend, protector, teacher, guide, rescuer…….a loving father, Abba, then I would expect you to pursue him.
This dichotomy, I think, is at the heart of the division of our culture into primarily secular and primarily religious camps. It is why these two groups have such a hard time even talking about God. They choose such different “faces” of God that it is almost as though they are talking about different Gods.
So….. which of these faces of God is the truth? You probably have already guessed…….it is not as simple as it seems. Each of the descriptions in the second paragraph has roots in the Bible. Each of these descriptions of God has some truth in it. How do we sort through them? More importantly, how do we use them to guide our actions………our thoughts……our lives?
What we are talking about here is relationship and what that relationship looks like from our side. I believe that relationship is the primary driving goal of our lives. It is the thing that we value the most. It is the thing that is the main determinant of whether we are happy or sad. I believe that the desire for relationship is at the center of our lives. It is “written on our hearts”. It was put there by our creator for our use……and for his. How we act on our need for relationship is the main thing that will determine the success or failure of our lives.
The most powerful relationship in our lives is the parent/child relationship. From the child’s side……..dependence, respect, honor, love, obedience, service, even worship. From the parent’s side…….love, self sacrifice, teaching, nurturing, protecting, promoting, and if necessary dying for your child. The fact that the parent/child relationship looks just like the human/God relationship is no accident. I believe that this incredibly strong instinctive relationship was built in to us by our creator. So……if you want to understand your relationship with God…….look at your relationship with your parents and your children. Some parents and some children do not do this well so you may have to look around a bit.
So…..what does this have to do with the “face” of God that we carry around with us?
If the face of God that we carry with us shapes our relationship with God…….then we had better choose our “face of God” carefully. If you want your relationship with God to be angry, confrontational, judgmental…….if you want to push God off into some remote corner of your life where he won’t cause you any trouble……focus on the face of God that Dawkins chose in his book. If, on the other hand, you want a joyful, peaceful, successful, loving parent/child relationship with your father, your creator, choose the “face” of Jesus……gentle, loving, forgiving, self sacrificing…….the face of God that wants success and happiness for you……over the long haul.
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
God, NIV
In a way, you are choosing whether you want to be joyous or angry……..because, like it or not, you can’t be both.
