I want to write something off the cuff, as it were. I’ve really been being impressed with the idea, once again, that my relationship with God in Christ is something that cannot be reduced to some propositions, principles, and practices. Instead, it can only be reduced, indeed, to God in Jesus Christ. As such it is a complexity, and something that transcends all of the arguments and debates
people so often have about him.

What really brought this home for me, at least most recently, was when I had cancer. It wasn’t that my theology meant nothing to me in the heat of that nightmare; it’s just that what really mattered in my theology bubbled to the top of everything. It was Jesus Christ, and his presence, which at points was more tangible that I could ever have imagined. It is hard to explain in words, but the reality of his presence was almost visible; to the point that it almost seemed as if I could reach out and touch him. One day, right before I was going to start my intensive chemo, I had a PET scan. At the end of that day my wife and I stopped at a local eatery to grab some sandwiches for dinner. In line a man, a curious fellow, stood behind me and started talking with me; just small talk. But just as I was about to pay and walk away from him he stopped me, put out his hand to shake it, and as we did he said: “it’s nice to finally meet you.” My wife and I went out to our car, and independent of each other we looked at one and asked: “do you think that guy was an angel?” We both came to that conclusion independent of each other. Later that night I was just contemplating everything that had happened at that point, and thinking about what laid ahead; some fear started to take hold. But that was fleeting, instead the LORD reminded me of the visitor he had brought into our lives earlier that day; and then he seemingly used that experience and tied it into the Elijah story when the he asked the LORD to open his servant’s eyes so he could see the armies of heaven surrounding them. It was as if the LORD opened my eyes to that power and reality; as if I could somehow tangibly sense the heavens opened, and God’s presence being bridged in a real way to me (something like Jacob’s ladder as well).

After I experienced this, I felt such a peace about God’s presence, and that I was not alone heading into the battle of my life. As I think about all of that (non-charismatic that I am) it gives me chills, and goose-bumps. I know that that reality is ever present, even now. And this is what I’m getting at in regard to God not being subject to all of our theologies, and debates about him. He is God, and He is real. He will do what He wants when He wants; and it is very good to be for Him and not against Him. To know that He is for us in Christ and not against us is the greatest hope the Christian soldier has.

I say all of the above not to down the reality of Christian theology; indeed, I believe we need to strive and work at articulating what we can, by the help of the Spirit, in regard to who God is. We ought to debate things, and grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ that way; as the church. We ought to engage in proclaiming the Evangel wherever we go, and not shrink back. But there is something more going on; something that is not easily articulated. Just as I shared a bit of my story above, God is able to transcend what we’ve ever thought to fathom of Him. He can show up in surprising and unexpected ways; and He will when He decides the time and circumstance is right; He will meet us the way He wants to meet us, and He will not show deference to the artificial constraints we have so often place upon Him precisely because of our theologies.

All of the above said, I wouldn’t want anyone to think that just because God shows Himself bigger than our theological constructs can handle, does not mean that something like the charismatic or Pentecostal movements have captured something about God in that regard. I actually don’t think that what I am referring to is a normative thing; i.e. I don’t think that God normally does the miraculous based upon some sort of word faith force, or because I muster something up from deep within me that God magically must meet. Indeed, I’m saying just the opposite. Sound theology will be humble enough to admit that we cannot fully account for how God acts, but that is not to say that we have no ways of testing that it actually is Him and not something that we have projected out of our minds and simply named an act of God. When God acts it is for His purposes, and in His timing; He will meet us, personally, in ways that He knows we need. When Paul says ‘God’s grace is sufficient,’ this is what I take him to mean: i.e. that God will and does meet us in unique and personal ways when we need Him to. We don’t get to dictate how He does that, or when; but we can rest assured that He will indeed meet us according His way, and for His purposes. He will comfort us, and minister to us as we need Him to do that; He has not forgotten that our frames are but dust.

Essentially what I am saying in this post is all premised on that reality that God meets us and makes Himself known to us when we are suffering; whether that be physical suffering, mental and/or emotional suffering; or a variety of many types of suffering. God makes Himself known to us when we feel, like the Apostle Paul, that we have ‘the sentence of death written upon us, so that we won’t trust ourselves but the One who raises the dead.’ We worship the God of Paul, and we call Father, the same One that Jesus has called His Father for all time and eternity.

I have failed at adequately articulating what I wanted to about how God is grander than what our theologies so often allow for. But I hope the gist of what I wanted to communicate has gotten across. I’ll try this again at some point.