
God’s glory is on tour in the skies,
God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.
(Ps. 19)
As we heard from Julian of Norwich (last post), when we experience God in and around everything, it changes our spiritual journeys. When we imagine God as a person, a guy who has friends, for example, we teeter in insecurity, wondering if we’ve done what it takes to be one of his friends. How many of us labor away, either trying hard to gain God’s favor or giving up in despair, believing we can never measure up? When we imagine God as a Person, persons have preferences. It is only natural to wonder if he prefers us.

When our God is a “man with a plan,” every time something bad happens, (a holocaust, genocide, divorce, a financial setback), we ask ourselves, “why did God plan this for me?” When a tsunami happens, and God is a Person, we can’t help but ask ourselves why a good God would cause all this torment and anguish.

The implications of our God-images become particularly evident when tragedy strikes. One image leads us one way; another, a different way.
In our tradition, when one of our God-metaphors begins to pinch, we have always been given the permission we need to reimagine God, to hop between metaphors the same way we do in the rest of our lives. (That last sentence takes a while to explain – a later post.)
The groundwork laid in this and the last post, help us do just that. In the next few posts we’ll reimagine God in a way that may challenge our Western sensibilities.
Bourgeoning thought: Making God a “person” invites us to attribute human reactions to him as we would with any other human, Seeing God as wind, fire, song, beauty, etc. tends to allow us to perceive God more, (or also), as quality/quantity rather than being. On the other hand, we also talk about having a personal relationship with God. Somehow the “personal” has a different meaning when the idea of God is expanded this way. This different “personal” appeals less to my false self, my shallower ego NEED to achieve, be, do, and calls forth a more authentic DESIRE to follow, grow, evolve from within.
hello anonymous (wish i knew who you are):
one of the primary reasons we don’t explore the non-person images of god is just what you say…
– our connection with the Divine does seem so profoundly personal
but just as you say, as we transcend the “guy out there” image of god, we don’t have to lose the deeply intimate and personal experience… in fact, it can deepen as you say.
welcome to the blog.
d.
Sorry – I thought once I put in my info, it would appear every time I replied. I’m really not too savvy, am I?? 😉