Terrible yet Beautiful

So, I'm absolutely terrible at updating my blog. Perhaps this is why people do not frequently leave comments. Erin said it best, "I don't post frequently enough. I don't post about enough current topics. I seem to be more of a drive-by blogger." Well, now I have a reason to post more.

I'm currently reading Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller with some of the senior guys in youth group. He's an author I respect a lot. He makes Christianity refreshing in a way. So many times, we get caught up in our own spirituality that we forget Christianity is a communal thing. We can grown by the thoughts, ideas, and experiences of other people. Miller brings his own experiences to the table, making you laugh and think at the same time.

His first chapter is great! He talks about how formulas don't work for Christianity. You can't put your relationship with God in a formulaic pattern anymore than your relationship with your best friend, wife, parents, siblings, etc. How many times do we do that, though? How often do we try to "self-help" our way into spirituality and Christianity? A relationship with God takes more time than just three, four, six, or twelve steps. It's takes all our time. I think that's why Brother Lawrence was so right in practicing the presence of God. When you're always aware of God's presence, then you get to know Him better. Duh!

The second chapter goes along very well with number one. When you have a formula god, you have a simple god. You have a simple god, he only exists to validate you,. In other words, your god moves according to your agenda instead of you moving according to God's. However, when questions come (like the questions in the WHY> series here at NCBC), your simple, self-justifying god falls apart. This god is an imposter of the real God just like (as Miller puts it) all the department store Santas were, to him, imposters of the "real" one when he was a child. No wonder so many people who say they believed in God but turned away. They were worshiping an idol, a sham, a simple god. Maybe this god is related to our God, but limited by the characteristics of the Living God that you like. We don't serve a Buffet God from whom you can pick and choose what characteristics you like or make you feel good. You simply create an imposter that is easily "debunked" when you start to really seek.

That's what makes the Living God so beautiful. He's kind of like a Hobbit. You can spend years with Him, but He'll always still surprise you.

"The god who cares so much about getting rich must not have treasures stored up in heaven, and the god so concerned with getting even must not have very much patience, and the god who cares so much about the West must really hate the rest of the world, and that doesn't sound like a very good god to me." Searching For God Knows What, pp. 28-29

The Tank is out...