Wayside Pulpit

Calm and Beautiful

I went to a Taize service tonight at my neighborhood church. It has been about three years since I attended a Taize service and this was one of the best. I am deeply moved by candles, music (especially chants in Latin) and deep shadows on the walls. I feel really close to some sort of presence, more like, actually, I feel really close to me. I find that I can be real when I am in these spaces and I don't have to pretend. Not that I actually go around trying to "be" someone else; more that I can't be me in the real world. I don't feel this way in certain moments in churches. It is like space becomes divine and there I am right in the middle of it all, not an outsider, but divine myself.

Roll Your Own God

Last night I was talking with a friend about a new job that he is starting. He was reflecting on the anxiety that goes along with starting any new endeavor and he said, "maybe I just need to make my God bigger to hold it all."

Can we make God bigger? I think so. The limits we have set on what God is or what God isn't can be rather humorous considering no one really knows what makes God. Who knows if there even IS a God, so how can anyone possibly say that a certain "image" of God is the correct one.

If you feel that you need a "God," I'm for the idea of creating your own God. However, there is a level of integrity that is required for this creation; the integrity of admitting that you do not have the only answer to the question of God's identity. This means that all of us who create our Gods can never forget that the identity of God is not really about God, rather it is more about ourselves.

One of the worse things about Christianity has been its claim on the identity and description of God. The Christian religion has put boundaries on this small three letter word. Churches, ministers and even political leaders continue to put God in a box and sell it just like saltine crackers.

I've borrowed certain images of God from other individuals, some consciously, some not. However, for the most part, I know that the only God that I can have faith in is the God that has come through me.