I don’t know how much I like the idea of my spirituality being relational. I suppose I believe this is true, but the formulas seem much better than God because the formulas offer control; and God, well, He is like a person, and people, as we all know, are complicated. The trouble with people is they do not always do what you tell them to do. Try it with your kids or your spouse or strangers at the grocery store, and you will see what i mean. The formuals propose that if you do this and this and this, God will respond. When I was a kid I wanted a dolphin for the same reason.
I remember watching the television show I Dream of Jeannie when I was young, and I wondered at how great it would be to have a Jeannie of my own, complete with the sexy outfit, who could blink a grilled-cheese sandwich out of thin air, all the while cleaning my room and doing my homework. I realize, of course, that is very silly and there is no such thing as a genie that lives in a lamp, but it makes me wonder if secretly we don’t wish God were a genie who could deliever a few wishes here and there. And that makes me wonder if what we really want from the formulas are the wishes, not God. It makes me wonder if what we really want is control, not a relationship.
Some would say formulas are how we interact with God, that going through motions and jumping through hoops are how a person acts out his spirituality. This method of interaction, however, seems odd to me, because if I want to hang out with my friend Tuck, I don’t stomp my feet three times, turn around, and say his name over and over like a mantra, lighting candles and getting myself in a certain mood. I just call him. In this way, formulas presuppose God is more a omputer or a circus monkey than an intelligent Being. I realize that sounds harsh, but it is true.
Searching for God Knows What. – Donald Miller
After reading this section of the book I must say that my eyes were opened. How many times have I approached prayer, communion, offering, serving as if it were a formula in order to get something from God> How often have I been taught that? How often has modernity & the church proposed this idea that with these 3 steps you can have a happy marriage, or follow these 6 step plan and you’ll no longer be depressed?
To look at God as a person, a friend is so much more important than as the great giver of things or happiness. To see him as a the great and grand genie puts him in such a low place, a place that makes him subserviant to us…to our wishes…to our desires…to our commands!
How much better would it be if we stopped trying to control God and allowed ourselves to get to know God…and not just a surface knowledge of God, but a deep knowledge, a knowledge that can only come from diving deep into the mysterious depths of his love, his grace, and his Being.
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