To Be Known

Who is God to you? If and when asked that question do you feel prepared to answer it? It's kind of interesting that so much of our faith is based on understanding of this Deity, this higher power, and yet when faced with a question about what God is, suddenly everything we sang, prayed, and thought about on Sunday morning worship can seem to slip out of our minds. It can be particularly difficult to talk about God with a person who has no religious experience or background. Where do you start when you're starting at the beginning of explaining who God is for you?

I think our answers to this question can then also give a clue into what our relationship with God could look like. Recently I had a conversation with a friend with no religious background. They grew up outside of any faith institution and completely outside of the concept of God. They were curious about what God meant to me. What was it that I did and say each Sunday in church? I started first with what God isn't to me. God is no old man in the sky with superpowers or magic that gives good things to those who worship "him" and smites the non-believers.

For me, this was an important thing to name. For too many, this is what they hear and know of God based on the religion that typically makes its way out into the world through the media and particular traditions. My understanding of who God is and how God functions in and around this world is quite different, better portrayed by our Scripture for this week.

This Sunday we'll explore Psalm 139, one of my very favorite psalms. In good times and bad, this psalm has offered great comfort. To be known and loved by God is beautiful and this poem is a love song to a gentle, yet powerful, present, and caring God. I hope you join us as we explore who God is and how God functions in our lives this week as we study this sacred poem!