The Simplicity of a Multi-Angled God

Since last fall I have been blessed to see that God is bigger than the box of religion I’ve been trying to fit Him into. He is more than rules. He didn’t come to regulate, He came to love. In order to see God from different angles I had to move. I could no longer just stand where I had been standing all my life. I had to step out into the world, step outside my religion and jump out of my comfort zone. I had to experience the scary truth that most Christians like to ignore; I had to live in the truth that God is everywhere and in everything. God is on the streets. God is in the party scene. God is in every religion… the danger is thinking that God, in His entirety is in one thing. He isn’t. We can never find all of God in one place– not even in church. The only time God was on earth fully in one thing was Jesus, and even then Jesus didn’t believe equality with God was something to be grasped.  Now we are just seeking to find Him and be like Him. I want to know Jesus more. I want to know the love and characteristics of Jesus, even those that the Western church has yet to master.

When we start to step out and look for God in different angles, people worry. They worry that somehow we will get swept away in some crazy beliefs. People fear that on the search we will get lost. In regards to that, I want to remind us all of some very important truths:

1.       ¹⁸There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.[1john4]

2.       ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.[jeremiah29]

3.       ⁸For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.[matthew7]

I had never felt satisfied with “church”. I tried so hard to “be good” but it never stuck. I was desperate. In my desperation, by the grace of God, He led me to seek Him with all my heart. I was seeking for all of Him, even if it wasn’t what I was taught growing up and even if it was a truth I didn’t like. I rooted myself in His word and stayed confident that if I was seeking Him I would always find Him. I had no room for fear of getting on the wrong path, I was falling in love with Perfect Love. He was making me fearless!

Throughout this search, I have found so much more of God. He has opened my heart and my eyes to see that He is so much more than a thought or emotions. He introduced me to seeing more than whats in front of my face. He is working from so many different angles and to depths that I could never understand. I now know that when I look at the physical picture of a rebellious teen showing out and acting out, there is so much more going on there. Through spiritual eyes and through the blood of Jesus, we can see God’s precious child longing to be loved. We can see that they’re finding comfort in filling their emptiness with the spirit of rebellion while the Holy Spirit of God is patiently waiting there, loving them through it all, and longing to fill that void and drive out the darkness and pain.

Lately I’ve struggled with the concept that we could all be seeking the same treasure and our walks all look completely different. I doubted God’s originality. I started to make my experience the box. I wanted everyone’s relationship with God to look like mine. I thought that “this(my experience) is what walking with God looks like.” How ignorant of me?? Did I really think that The Creator could only create one picture of what walking with Him looks like?? ESPECIALLY after I had made such a huge point in my life to look at God from different angles!

Needless to say, God has been humbling me. He is opening my eyes to the fact that He is working in everything. I never doubted God was working in the bars or in places that seemed “bad”. I knew He was there, they needed Him. But I did start judging the church. I thought if someone wasn’t practicing what they preached or if someone wasn’t living radically, that somehow they just had become stale. But I was wrong. How could anyone become stale when God is constantly pursuing us? Even if we aren’t making effort- God is there. He is after our hearts and always working on our hearts. I believe God’s love is too great. He is running after us (even when we are walking away) with an everlasting endurance.

So I guess to wrap up this blog I just want to say keep seeking Him. Look for Him everywhere and in everything. It is way too easy to look at our western church and be discouraged. It is too easy to talk about how little we are living what we preach and its too easy to look at flaws in others’ doctrine and traditions. We are the church. We have to stop pointing fingers or debating who is doing what is right. The first thing we are supposed to do is love God and then love others. We haven’t even got that down yet so why do we keep jumping ahead of ourselves to more complex debates about the bible. God is everywhere and God is love. We have to acknowledge that is our common ground and live in it.

¹²No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.[1john4]