Naked Truth: Small God, Small You

Hello, friends. I’m glad my shower epiphany didn’t scare you off.

As a woman well past mid-life, unless I live to 103, it’s a tad embarrassing to admit I still uncover childish thoughts. But, it’s not the most scandalous thing you’ll hear from me, I guarantee.

Last time we looked at childhood mindsets that dictated the cooking and shampooing habits of two grown women. Yes, old thought patterns die hard. We all hold onto habits and opinions because people we trusted told us or showed us, so we believed them. No questions asked.

We listen to those we trust. And for good reason. It’s important to stay out of the road and let streetlights remind us to head home before dark. But there’s a time to question beyond childhood lessons. Especially when culture, family, and life events hand us unhealthy beliefs about God.

We’re grown-ups. It’s time to ask some big kid questions.

Do we really know Him?

Has our faith grown beyond head knowledge and found a home in our hearts? Perhaps we see God as a Santa Claus, a spoilsport, or a lightning-toting tyrant who keeps mortals running between fear and guilt.

Has our faith molded around past teaching or past experiences? Is it modeled after how it was lived out or not lived out in our family?  Maybe it’s what we weren’t taught that leaves us empty and our minds full of wrong thinking.

If so, your God is too small.

As we strip unhealthy mindsets, we’ll know the One who gave us our individuality, our uniqueness and personality. On our journey to grow into our divine design, we need to know the truth about our Designer.

After all, we are made in His image, to reflect His nature .¹

As a child, I thought God was distant and unreachable, waiting to zap me if I did something bad. Sin’s definition was a bit fuzzy to me so I remembered the Big Ten checklist and recited the Act of Contrition before bed just in case one snuck past me.

My small, immature faith was enough for me then and for decades later when I decided to seek God – not as lightning insurance – but as a savior to change me and guide my life. On the outside life was good, but on the inside,

 I was dying for peace and purpose.

I opened my mind and heart to my pastor’s messages and started living out Jesus’ teaching in the Bible. Forgiveness gave me peace, trust taught me hope, and healing revealed my purpose. Soon, I understood the sin, the love, and the grace that my childhood bedtime prayer talked about.

Maybe, like me, you’re thankful for the faith you knew as a child. But if we want to reach our full, liberated potential, we can’t stay there. Our spiritual growth is consistent with the size of our God. Small God, small us.

And we weren’t born to be small, my friends.

Many of us, even Christ followers, live with inner dissatisfaction and incompleteness, sensing that we’re living below our potential. We feel inadequate because our God is either non-existent or way too small.

 “If it is true that there is Someone in charge of the whole mystery of life and death, we can hardly expect to escape a sense of futility and frustration until we begin to see what He is like and what His purposes are.” ²

Unhealthy mindsets block us from seeing God’s true character.

Next time, we’ll look at a little Jiminy Cricket theology and uncover some lies. In the meantime, read one of the Gospels, like John. Get to know God’s nature by getting to know Jesus.

I need a bigger God today than when my biggest worry was waking up first for Saturday morning cartoons. I’m done fearing lightning bolts and ready to live the abundant life Jesus promises in John 10:10. How about you?

Peace, my friends.

 

1. Genesis 1:26-27
2. J.B. Philips, Your God is too small, p. 9

 

© Robin Melvin 2015