Feel free to respond to any of the questions or comments in this post. Hopefully, good discussion will be generated!
In his first chapter of “Blue Like Jazz”, Donald Miller shares quite a bit of the images of God he had as a child and teenager. His concepts of God included a “stiff, oily man”, a rich man who drove a big car and had popular kids, and an idea of God as a “… slot machine, a set of spinning images that doled out rewards based on behavior and, perhaps, chance”.
What are some of the concepts of God you have had at various points in your life?
How did these concepts of God affect how you related to God?
In John 10:7-39, Jesus makes several statements in the hearing of the Jewish leadership regarding his identity. He tells them that he has come so that the sheep (God's people) may have life, and have it abundantly. His statements cause much unrest within the Jewish leadership. See this excerpt from John 10:24-30:
So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”
In his book, Miller writes, "Today I wonder why it is God refers to Himself as 'Father' at all. This, to me, in light of the earthly representation of the role, seems a marketing mistake. Why would God want to call Himself Father when so many fathers abandon their children?"
How would you respond to this question?
How do you relate to God today?
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5 comments:
I remember as a little kid, I always had the image of God as a "grandfather" figure sitting on a throne up in the clouds. With this image, I always thought of God as distant and away. As I grew older, the idea of a personal God - picturing Jesus as a friend -helped develop my understanding and my relation toward God.
As for the imagery of God as "Father", I can see how it can be difficult for someone, especially children, who do not have a "father" figure in their life to relate to God as Father. I think some denominations, like the UCC, have changed their approach to the Father label, even allowing God to be referred to as "Mother" if it helps an individual to relate to God better. I often wonder if the idea of God as Father developed out of a Patriarchal society of the time.
As a child, I also had the image of an older man with a long beard watching everything go on from Heaven with limited interaction with mankind. Of course, you have to also understand that my family stopped attending church when I was still very young. I had no concept of a personal relationship with God or a God who wanted to be known to me as intimately as a father. This didn't come until I was 16 and started visiting a church with a friend. It was our youth leader and the Experiencing God study that led me to understanding God as someone who was truly invested in me and wanted a relationship with me.
The term "Father" has a lot of issues. I think of a father as being distant. I call my father "Dad". It's just more personal, less formal. I remember meeting a guy in college who in prayer referred to God as "Dad" because he thought it more accurately portrayed his relationship with God.
For many, "father" is a negative term. I think it is our job as the church to teach them that God is what a true father should be. And if it is not a word they are comfortable with in the beginning, they should hold on to a more comfortable term (I am not suggesting "Mother)like "Lord". In time, I think their own image of God would change to the point that they would be more comfortable with the "Father" connotation.
My understanding of God was shaped for many years by the death of my grandfather. I was visiting my grandparents, who lived in a rural part of Florida. My grandfather walked out the door to go to work but never made it to the car door. I had to walk to the end of the dirt road they lived on and wait for the ambulance. The whole time I was walking down that road, I was praying that God would make granddaddy OK. When the EMT told us he had died, I just cracked. I spent the rest of the day crying in the arms of a family member.
I was able to understand out of that moment the idea of God's comfort. However, I also had in my mind a conception of God that said God could not change our circumstances. In my first years of ministry, I would not pray for someone to be healed because I had in my head the idea that God didn't heal anymore. It took one of my chaplaincy supervisors confronting me on this to realize how I was letting this early experience limit God.
Out of that experience, I think Father is a wonderful name by which to know God. Parents are who we tend to look to for help, for support, for comfort. The intimacy and trust that are implicit in the name Father are not present in another name. I do recognize that, for some, the name Father carries it with it a history of abuse or neglect. In those instances, I think God blesses us with the reality that there are many names by which He may be called upon.
I find in my life now that I crave the intimacy with God that a name like Father suggests. The incarnation has become a huge concept for me: in Jesus we encounter God in flesh. "The Father and I are one." The thing I find is that when I try to fill that craving with anything else, I am left incomplete or frustrated.
My image of God as a child was influenced by the pastor at the church I grew up at. Dr. Jones was a grandfather-y man and that's what I always pictured God as. This image stayed with me until I began to develop my personal relationship with GOd.
I guess I've been lucky, that I've had a good example of a father so I can relate to God as our Heavenly Father. Not everyone is that lucky though. Absentee parents are more the norm that rare these days. God as a parent is hard for some people to relate to.
Some other religions have both male and female deities. I guess that's to make sure everyone had someone to pray to. I'm glad that God has so many names that people can pick what they are comfortable with when they pray.
I have had different concepts of God all my life. I grew up in church, but hated God for years. I never realized it was myself I hated, not God. I tried to fill this God shaped hole in my heart with everything you can think of, but only God fits that God shaped hole. When I was so beaten and broke down I decided to read a book, "The Purpose Driven life." I figured I had nothing to lose. I opened my mind and my heart and God has slowly filled my God shaped hole. Now don't get me wrong, I forget that he is the only one who can fill it and I go searching for instant gratification all the time, we all do. If I am willing to become honest about it then I can grow. If I stay dihonest I will never change. SR
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