ohbloodyhell8

Abba…not the Swedish pop group.  What do you see when you think of God?  I’ve always connected more on an auditory level, conversations with Him and such, but what do you see when you think of Him?  And as we discussed tonight in my group from church, Him?  Or Her?  Or simply spirit, a being, encompassing all traits and aspects of humanity?

In my quest for simplicity, can I be strong enough to also simplify my image of God to finally acknowledge what I have thought, felt, known for a long time?  That the being of God is simply too much for me to fathom until I am called home?

I used to picture God as a spiritual light being like when the Mystics and Skeksis were brought back together into one being, healing the crystal, and becoming once again the UrSkeks in The Dark Crystal.  Then Les Miserables provided me with a new image as I got older…”to love another person is to see the face of God”.   Long story short, my mind cannot fathom the image of God.  I have images that I connect with my relationship with God.  One is of hands, strong hands, comforting hands.  This, I am sure, is influenced by the fact that my dad was an Allstate agent.

But I also have images of nature, of acts of kindness, of acts of destruction that connect me with God.  It is easy to see God in kindness, love, and empathy.  It took me longer to see God in acts of destruction.  To see God weeping.  I feel God mourning when the act of destruction is caused by a human.  I know I have abused the concept of free will in my lifetime, I know I will again.  Ironically, it’s because I am human.  I can strive and strive to own free will and walk the path that Jesus has taught me, but I will fail.  It is what I do when I fail that matters.  It is taking ownership, it is being accountable that makes me stronger in my faith.  As I continue to improve that part of myself, I’ll fall less and less.

During our get-together tonight, I had so many pop cultural references pop into my mind.  This could mean that I have absorbed too much entertainment over the years.  It could also be a reflection of how long and how frequently society, generally speaking, tries to understand God.  Bruce Almighty, Evan Almighty, Oh God, “What If God Were One of Us?”, Dogma, The Ten Commandments, The Passion of the Christ, “Personal Jesus”, “Losing My Religion”, Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Book of Mormon, The Seventh Sign.  How often societies try to understand their own religions…we can look back to the ancient Greeks and the Romans with all the mythology.  Well, what we call mythology but what to them was real.

I love exploring the aspects of my faith.  I love walking on my journey with God.  I am blessed to have my husband, sons, and church family to walk with on this road.  We all have our own individual paths, but they intersect often enough to celebrate our blessings.