What is your
experience of God and how is it shaping your theology?
Here are my thoughts:
As
I sit in this coffee shop, I look out the window next to me to see a small bit
of untamed land; a small piece of natural, quiet, beauty amidst the otherwise
busy and commercialized Hennepin Avenue.
The trees there today look still and steady, claiming their space. The leaves are vibrant: piercing
flashes of red, orange, yellow and green on a backdrop of grays and
browns. I can’t really explain how
such brilliant, lively, lovely color speaks to me of God, but it does.
My
experience of God is not only like those trees but it is those trees. God is
alive and present in all that is still and steady.. in my breath.. in this
warm, unassuming mocha.. in the people in my life who love me through my
faults.. in the voice inside of me that is also constant and claiming its’
space.
God
is also alive in flashes of color.. in beauty.. in easy laughter… in a dog who
welcomes me daily.. a home that exudes safety and confidence… in big, real hugs
from children whom I love and trust.. in all the people and places that show up
in my life in often surprising ways to teach me and remind me about change,
vibrancy, honesty, mystery, joy, hope, beauty, life, and love.
Yes,
perhaps my entire experience of God, the Universe, can be summed up in my
experience of these trees, this mocha and this couch on this day.
This
awareness has and continues to shape my theology immensely. Just as no one can claim to own these
trees.. to have the right to them.. to possess them fully and uniquely.. so it
is with God. No one person, group,
community, or religion can fully and exclusively own, express, know, or
possess, God. God leaves God’s self,
open to be witnessed by all at all times.
In the same, God doesn’t demand our attention… God doesn’t debate for it
or advertise… God doesn’t fail to
exist just because we failed to notice or respond.. God simply is.
God
invites. And the invitation is
always open, at all times, in all places, to all people. It is an invitation to be united to
God, to make a connection, to glimpse and be grounded in the awe-inspiring
beauty that God is.. and hence that we are too.
