Who is God, Again?

I was reading an article this morning and something caught my eye. It wasn't in the article itself but in the comments. One of comments was a reply in which the commenter said "...God wants you to kill." This stopped me and I held my breath for a moment as the words rattled around in my head. My brain began feverishly searching for verses, teachings, and ideals that relate to God and war. I came to the conclusion that I do not know a heck of a lot about it.

To be honest, my Biblical literacy is embarrassingly low. Then again, I never made the Bible a central aspect of my life. With that said, I believe God, as given to us through the witness testaments of Christ, is a love. As such I would have a very hard time believing that Christ, God, would ever want me to kill anyone. This line of thinking, of course, might have exceptions and I am sure all the atheists out there are preparing their notes as I write this.

My thought on the matter is not as important, however, as the idea that followed after. Who is God? Not just to me, but to you? How about the Muslim four doors down? The Jewish baker downtown? Who is God to you mother, father, sister? I believe He is different to everyone. With this idea you can understand my frustration and anger when I hear people make affirmative statements about what they think God wants us to do!

In the end, for now, it is all broken thought to me. Who is God? Well, I find out a little more with each day. But I believe I need to keep my beliefs in check when I am in conversation to make sure that I do not claim affirmation in regards to something I do not fully understand.

Theology of Now

Snoopy is one of my favorite cartoon characters of all time. There was something about him that just drew me to him as a kid and now I can begin to see why. Snoopy was a character of pure imagination. Throughout the peanuts strip he had an abundance of personas ranging from the World War 1 Flying Ace to Joe Cool to the Masked Marvel! He explored vast territories in his own mind through personal experience and creativity; a skill set I feel many of us could benefit from.

You see, there comes a time when we believe we have it right. The choices we have made in the past have lined up and we are on our way to what we believe is our ultimate destination. I call this the "Theology of Now". That is, we have come to a conclusion that encompasses ourselves, our understanding of God, and the world around us; and it makes sense. Right NOW I know what I want to do. Right NOW I feel I understand God's call. Right NOW I am happy, motivated, and ready to go.

The problem with this state of mind is that it is static in a world that is ever changing. So, for the moment we have it right and so long as everything stays as it should, we will be successful. Then it happens: life gets in the way. Our journey takes an unexpected turn or there is a variable that we have not considered that seemingly ruins it all.

I would like to think of it in another way. Let's say we are driving home and it is pouring rain outside. We are about to turn down the road to get to the house and all of a sudden we get a flat tire. Up until this point we were happy amongst ourselves and making plans about what to do when we get home. Now, all of a sudden, there has been a change and we have two choices. First, we can ignore the tire and continue to drive with our original plans in mind. The problem with this option is that it can cause other damage to the car and it is risky to drive this way. The second choice is to stop and change the tire! The problem with the second option is if we change the tire, that means our plans in the future must be altered!

Too often, I believe, when life suddenly changes we do not stop to change the tire. We become so accustom to our ideas, our "Theology of Now", that we refuse to make a change. Instead, we should be like Snoopy. Have a goal, for sure, however, also be flexible and creative in our lives. We need to be able to adapt and to allow our imagination to play a role in how we live. If something changes, explore it. See what opportunities are there and make adjustments accordingly.