God Can't be My Hot Rod

Last week's post was fun to write--I had a moment of creativity I believe came from being off an extra day.  It was about wishing and believing God could be a muscle car I could drive around town, showing off, making others wish they had God too.  Just in case you'd like to read it: "Something to Brag About"

While I still want to affirm the analogy and encourage us to reconsider our perceptions of God, I realized I had done something our culture is fond of doing, that yet can be quite destructive.

I was telling Sarah (my wife) how excited I was about my post and the idea of it.  She was also enthused.  But as she walked into the other room and I sat thinking further, my hot-rod analogy sparked other conversations I've had over the years, primarily with men, but with some women as well.

It was the conversation of one spouse wishing the other looked differently or better.  It was the reminder of studies reporting how our magazines, movies, models, and pinterest are all portraying the "correct" look and behavior of both women and men to the point that we no longer see people, but images of things we should be.  It was the study reporting that after viewing pornography, the same parts of the male brain that are most active when seeing images of hammers, saws, and trucks become the most active parts when images of women were shown.

It was at that moment, while I was still thankful for my post idea, I realized I was running the risk of objectifying God as well, and that I needed to take the analogy a little further.  While I still encourage all of us to change our perspectives and see, believe, and know that God IS powerful, fast, capable of anything, glorious, unbeatable, and worth showing off to our friends, God IS ALSO we not reduce Him to an object.

I believe God's resistance to being put in a box is what deepens our faith and makes who God is, in all parts and as a whole, infinitely more dynamic than the superficiality of an ultra-utility vehicle.  And so, just as we are called to look past the object our culture encourages us to see in our spouses, friends, and people of the opposite sex, so are we called to look past the object we might wish God to be as well.

Instead, let us see a God who is mysterious, full of character, unpredictable, yet completely reliable, manipulation-resistant, yet extremely collaborative-prone, always moving, never changing, always working with us, never failing, full of love, full of understanding, full of desire for our hearts, and far more beautiful than our eyes could ever dream to see.

And let us see those around us through similar lenses as well.  They'll become far more beautiful as well when we do.  Praise God!


More to come!

Jason <><