A few weeks ago, I did a short series on “irritating things about God”.  It is only fair that I should mention how far the other stuff outweighs the irritations.  I would like to get specific and let you know some things I like about God.  No guarantee that this will be a series, but this is what is on my mind today.

One of my favorite things about God is this.  He is constantly and consistently being and expressing Himself.  The Bible (Romans 1:20 to be exact) says that in the visible, natural creation, we see the invisible attributes of a supernatural God.  So the question issues from our lips…”why does God do it this way“, or “why doesn’t God just…”.  We make these observations of reality and life, and we figure we might know a smarter way to accomplish the same outcome.

So this whole “God expressing Himself” concept, trumps any brilliant idea we might have.

Today it is raining.  I began to think, “Why couldn’t God just make things self-sustaining?” I thought perhaps He could make things so that the water supply is built in, and all the nutrients are self contained, and self-generated.  I mean, He’s God, and it would have been easy to design things this way.  The beauty of my idea is that you don’t have the messy-ness of rain, and the whole ingestion, digestion, elimination cycle.  All these cycles, and the messy-ness of them, could be completely bypassed, if the supply of all these needs were just built into our being, right?

Then I got “the tap.”

You know, the sense you have when God begins to interrupt your smugness, and self-congratulations.

If I could put words to it, He seemed to be reminding me of the fact that all these cycles were expressing something about His nature.  The cycle of precipitation, weather patterns, etc.  All these things tell me stuff about the One who made them.

First, He is always changing even though He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  Second, He loves making things new.  Generating again, that which has already been generated.  Re-creating.  Then, I noticed He seemed less concerend about the messiness than I was.  Almost like my sense that this rain is inconvenient was about me and my ways of thinking and not about the actual circumstance.  Also, like these cycles, He is always passing on more of Himself.  Things age, but are renewed. Things are used up but never useless.  There is an organic nature to these cycles and processes, in which God is passing life from one system to another.

Wow, God was in a talkative mood.

And all because I started thinking I knew a less messy way to run the universe.

I really like that about Him.

I am still using photographs, generously shared by the amazing Jillian Hamp, professional photographer.  Click on her name to see her work, or find out where her work is on display.

Language fascinates me.  Sounds and symbols somehow connect us to realities much bigger than actual words.  We had a fun night with amazing people in our house last night.  I was struck that my family was the only monolinguistic crew in house.

Everyone else in the house had at least two languages, two sets of vocabulary and structures with which they could describe and share their reality.  I love the setting where in the corner two people converse in Hebrew, because it connects their common history, while others, dripping with international accents, (like Louisiana…) engage in hilarious story-telling, connecting one another to uncommon moments.

I am struck by how much life is exchanged in our exchange of words.  Not just lifestories—life.  How much energy, and aliveness is transmitted in relationship through words.  Sounds and Symbols.

Behind every story is a real experience.  Every word, or cluster of words connects us all to a moment and a set of feelings.  The moments, and the experiences are the REAL thing.  The words somehow draw us all together to share one persons experience, and make us more than a gathering of 0ne-persons.  The words make us a community, connected and related.

Words.  Powerful little sounds and symbols.  Like currency, we should both choose carefully, and enjoy fully how we exchange them.  Wrapped up in these sounds and symbols can be either life or death.  And we can give either to anyone we choose.    

Now, read this:

“In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and The Word was God.  HE was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. And in Him was Life and the Life was the Light of men.”

God had something to say.  When He said it, out from His mouth came an infant. An infant who would heal the sick, raise the dead, and transform the the hearts of the heartsick.  He would turn the selfish and the fearful  into lovers and givers.  When God said the Word, it was not merely a sound or a symbol…it was The Experience…Him Loving us.  Listen, He is saying it again.

“I’m just not sure I have the faith it takes to get through this”.

” I just know I don’t have as much faith as I should”.

These thoughts, and many like them, course through our minds as we wrestle with our sense of inadequacy as children of God.  I am convinced that we wrestle with this sense of inadequacy because way too often, we try to generate from our soul, what can only come from God Himself.

Faith is not the mental agreement with a religious system or doctrine.  Nor is it our resolve to carry out a mindset or a mission.  It is a way of seeing that comes from listening instead of thinking.

I also see, far too often, that people think that the fact that they experience fear means that they do not “have enough faith”.  What if that is not true?

I know the Bible tells us that faith without works is dead.  I also think that faith without fear may be dead.  If not dead, at least it is not really faith.  Often the lack of fear is because we can see or reason the solution to, or we can rescue ourselves from our circumstances.  What happens when we can’t see, but believe anyway?

Let me put it this way.  Which demonstrates more faith; jumping off a curb, or jumping off a cliff.  The first requires no faith at all because the risk (or fear factor) is minimal.  Jumping off a curb allows you to still catch yourself, to rely on your own capabilities.  Where is the fear (or faith) in that.

Jump off a cliff. (Don’t really go do this OK?, it’s an illustration…) You are now without the ability to catch yourself.  Your resources are of no help.  Only God can help you now.  The fear factor increases the faith required to act.

Sometimes real faith means feeling the reality of the fear, but trusting and acting anyway.  Trusting because you have a way of seeing that came from hearing and not from thinking.