God is the Ultimate Paradox and the embodiment of tension. He is fully knowable, and yet beyond our comprehension. We are designed by God to know and connect with Him. While our language may fail to describe or name God, our soul leaps, our mind is stirred and our spirit recognizes God’s very presence and guidance. All of creation expresses God, but like a single piccolo attempting to perform an intricate symphony by itself, fails to fully portray the depth, beauty, richness and complexity that is our God.
I have long been willing to understand God in diverse and divergent ways, intuiting Him throughout the mundane and marvelous, ostracized and opulent, sacred and secular. I bristle and bewail those for whom God must be fully defined and delineated, knowing His majesty is masked by their boxes. I passionately challenge myself and others to open ourselves, allowing God to define Himself in ways that transcends our definitions. I desire to be one who is defined by God, rather than one who defines Him.
Must one know God “in the box” before getting to know God outside our box? That has long been the approach of churches and ministries throughout time. But rather than the box being freeing and a starting place, it has instead become confining and the destination.
We all “know” God in a myriad of ways. What if, in a gathering of His saints, we shared and reflected together? Where is God working in your life? Who is He to you right now? Who has He been through time?
And when someone describes the beautiful sunset that brings life to their soul, my understanding expands. When another has seen God in the eyes of a starving child in Africa, I learn. When a third senses God in the rhythms of jazz, I grow. No box will ever fit God. No definition ever suffice. Just as it takes a community to fully express the image of God, so too does it require a multitude of names and ideas.
Who is God to you? Where do you most recognize and sense His presence? How do you experience and encounter God?
