There's a great song by the band The City Harmonic where they work the words of the Lord's prayer into the lyrics (you can watch the video here even though it's a little cheesy). But the song and some other things rattling around my head got me thinking about this...
Some of us have probably read, said, prayed, or thought about the Lord's Prayer hundreds of times. But do we really think about the first couple words? One of A.W. Tozer's most famous quotes is this: "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." So what do we think about God? And is that at all shaped by the fact that God is (or at least continually offers to be) our Father?
Anyway, I think part of our perception of God is shaped by the word 'Father'. This word isn't used often when we're talking to (or even about) our biological fathers...it really only gets used on a regular basis in churches. When I hear the word 'father', I for some reason think of George Banks. This guy had it together, right? He had a schedule...he had a pipe and a brandy every night (offering some sort of distinction). He was the benevolent dictator of his domain, but had little time to offer his children. I think that a lot of us see God this way...he'll drop the hammer if he needs to, but really just wants us to leave him alone.
And then there's the other side of the spectrum. I love the music of Aaron Strumpel and the people at Enter the Worship Circle, but I have this internal cringe every time I hear the song "I Remember." In it, Aaron sings I remember your deeds, oh Dad, my God, I think I'll trust in you. It just seems sacrilegious, right? We're supposed to live in fear and awe of God...can we go around calling him Daddy? But how awesome would it be if we could just curl up and chill with God before bedtime?
Unfortunately, I'm not sure what I think about God on a day-to-day basis. I'm guessing that many of us live our lives as functional atheists. We don't believe God cares about us enough to discipline us and we don't think he loves us enough to meet our needs (much less our wants). So we live a moral life, but only because we feel like we have to keep up appearances. We pray, but we don't really believe God is going to step into our lives. It's just sad...and it's not reality
Think about the best dad ever (besides mine and this guy). If we really try to tie up the best qualities of fatherhood, a perfect love shines through with wisdom, grace, discipline, love, protection...and add whatever good stuff you think should be added. But the truth is that we can never comprehend the amazing nature of God...his capacity as a Father, Abba, Daddy is far beyond what we could ever understand. If we can just wrap our minds around that nugget, it could really change how we approach him...and could change how we present him to others. God is not a force, or an energy, or some old dude sitting in the clouds watching his plan play out. He's the father of all creation begging his children to let him love them completely
Some of us have probably read, said, prayed, or thought about the Lord's Prayer hundreds of times. But do we really think about the first couple words? One of A.W. Tozer's most famous quotes is this: "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." So what do we think about God? And is that at all shaped by the fact that God is (or at least continually offers to be) our Father?
Anyway, I think part of our perception of God is shaped by the word 'Father'. This word isn't used often when we're talking to (or even about) our biological fathers...it really only gets used on a regular basis in churches. When I hear the word 'father', I for some reason think of George Banks. This guy had it together, right? He had a schedule...he had a pipe and a brandy every night (offering some sort of distinction). He was the benevolent dictator of his domain, but had little time to offer his children. I think that a lot of us see God this way...he'll drop the hammer if he needs to, but really just wants us to leave him alone.
And then there's the other side of the spectrum. I love the music of Aaron Strumpel and the people at Enter the Worship Circle, but I have this internal cringe every time I hear the song "I Remember." In it, Aaron sings I remember your deeds, oh Dad, my God, I think I'll trust in you. It just seems sacrilegious, right? We're supposed to live in fear and awe of God...can we go around calling him Daddy? But how awesome would it be if we could just curl up and chill with God before bedtime?
Unfortunately, I'm not sure what I think about God on a day-to-day basis. I'm guessing that many of us live our lives as functional atheists. We don't believe God cares about us enough to discipline us and we don't think he loves us enough to meet our needs (much less our wants). So we live a moral life, but only because we feel like we have to keep up appearances. We pray, but we don't really believe God is going to step into our lives. It's just sad...and it's not reality
Think about the best dad ever (besides mine and this guy). If we really try to tie up the best qualities of fatherhood, a perfect love shines through with wisdom, grace, discipline, love, protection...and add whatever good stuff you think should be added. But the truth is that we can never comprehend the amazing nature of God...his capacity as a Father, Abba, Daddy is far beyond what we could ever understand. If we can just wrap our minds around that nugget, it could really change how we approach him...and could change how we present him to others. God is not a force, or an energy, or some old dude sitting in the clouds watching his plan play out. He's the father of all creation begging his children to let him love them completely
