The Bald Goat

Does anyone else get confused by God? By the idea that we believe in one God and yet we talk about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit? This issue is HUGE by the way and debates and conversations and arguments have been going on for centuries! I am not going to unravel the mysteries of this tension in a blog post. If you want some information on the many views on this subject go and begin scratching the surface over at Wikipedia. If that doesn’t satisfy your interests then a more rigorous study should be pursued that will most likely take your whole life…

Sorting out this tension is not necessary for my post today. It is simply a backdrop for the distractions of my mind during worship today. I like something Rob Bell said once about tensions in our understanding of the scriptures. Sometimes it is ok to leave certain tensions alone and accept them as what they are…mysterious.

So, as I was saying, we were worshiping at church today and I got distracted by some verses we were singing when we said something about all our hope being in Jesus. I wondered, “Isn’t our hope in God?” I mean didn’t God send Jesus and didn’t Jesus always want God to receive glory for everything that he was doing? Here, we can begin some of the arguments about 3 persons being 1 God. About how 1 God walked in the garden, but in the beginning God said let US make man in OUR image. Or the passages that say the lord our God is one God. And then contrast that with the places where God spoke the holy spirit descended like a dove and Jesus was getting wet. Three in one place, but they are all the same… This is all a horrible tangent from what I want to get to, but it is necessary to understand the tension I am feeling.

When we worship, who are we worshiping?

God the Father the creator of the universe, all powerful, all knowing, all loving?

God the Son who lived as a man and walked on this earth and died as a sacrifice to set things right once and for all?

God the Holy Spirit who is somewhat ambiguous and mysterious like the force in Star Wars (only movies 4,5, & 6) moving and abiding within us and all around us?

Are the names interchangeable because it really doesn’t matter because we are talking about one God?

Does anyone else ever get hung up on details like this? Does it distract you? Does it frustrate you? Do you wish God had made things more clear? Or are the 3 persons necessary for us earthly humans to even begin to comprehend the mysteries of God?

I usually begin my prayers “Lord”, but tonight I ask for the trinity as we have been shown to give some clarity or give some peace about bizarre and confusing distractions like this. I would love to understand, but I am ok with these things remaining a mystery. I only ask that if the mystery remains that it will not be a distraction from the thing(s) that is(are) really important…You.