God Shattered My Box

God refuses to be contained in our little boxes. You know the ones we try to put Him in? How we try to contain Him inside our nice neat labels and denominations?

He is too wild and big and great and wonderful for any box to hold Him. 

So He has been in the process of shattering my box to smithereens.

What does this mean?

-I don't see everything in black and white anymore.

-I have to stop clinging to my former nice and tidy systematic theology.

-I question those who use the word "Biblical" as a definitive adjective, as if they are the authority on every interpretive debate. (See this post: It's biblically impossible to be biblical, or this one: "Beware of Thinking Biblically", and I also just started reading The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible by Scot McKnight)

-I don't think I have it all figured out.

-There is room for doubt. My God is big enough for all of my questions. (I love Jason Boyett's book that deals with this: O Me of Little Faith: True Confessions of a Spiritual Weakling) 

-There's a lot more "I don't know" and a lot less certainty about a lot more things.

(I think this is where Faith comes in. Novel idea huh?)

And that's okay.

Because what is left is what is most important anyway:

Jesus. 

LORD and Savior.
Son of God and Son of Man.

My LORD.

My Savior.

the Way, the Truth, the Life.

Why did I ever expect to be able to figure out God? He is infinite! His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. He is Other. (Though we are made in His image.) And this infinite God is TRUTH. So of course finite humans are not capable of fully knowing Him on this side of eternity. That is not to say that we cannot know God or Truth at all, just that we cannot know Him completely.

More to come...

Grace and Peace to you.