What I Believe

Still being in my infancy stage as a child of our Heavenly Father, this may be rather simplistic, but I hope it makes sense.

I’ve heard the Father referred to by at least one of my spiritual guides in a non-bias gender role, in that they do not refer to Him as “Him” or “Father”, but as God, Yahweh.  At first, I found it very offensive – especially when I found that it was being taught that way in seminaries around the country and throughout the world.  That disgust lessoned a bit when I found the reasoning behind it was to be more inclusive, and  to be less threatening to those whose relationships with their father were less than ideal.

That being said, in writing this – my personal theology – I’ve had an epiphany.  Yep, a light bulb shone brightly over my head.  The One who I say is my Father is everything.  Beginning and end, dark and light, left and right, up and down, Alpha and Omega. God created both a man and a women in His likeness, so to give God one title or to refer to God as one gender or the other does not make sense and is far from appropriate.  God is much greater than just that one designation or any single title. God is God!

So what is God to me?  Well, as a man, I more readily see God as a male for three main reasons.  The first is the patriarchal teachings I’ve experienced throughout my life.  When you hear something is so from the time that you could hear, it’s difficult to change that image.

Secondly, I lost my father at a younger age – when I was just 13.  I have always longed to have a man act as my guide, coach and role model.  So why not identify with the Creator of All as that figure?  (I suspect that this natural identity is related to both the first and the third reasons.)

Third, and finally, I desire my Creator to more readily identify with my gender’s unique views on life.  This is NOT to say that those views are right.  As we ALL know, men and women are different – equal, but also very different.  So with this idea and identity set in stone (some would say that’ what fills my head), for me, God is my Father.

God guides me, lets me make mistakes, and is there when I need help – lifting me up, dusting me off, and loving me.  God as a Father also gives me gentle and not-so-gentle corrective nudges.  God is there to love me, but wants that love in return.  I believe that God weeps when we walk away and opens the door widely when we walk back to God.  I believe God is a forgiving Creator, but we must ask for forgiveness and turn away from our mistake(s) and learning.  My Father, our Father, our God loves us so much that he sent his only son so that we may ALL be forgiven and one day reside in the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Son, Jesus Christ.  God incarnate, and of course God would come as a man, a son, because in that time and even most places today, a man is more readily accepted as a leader.  This is not personal commentary, acceptance, nor is it condemnation, it is just a fact.

Jesus Christ, a babe born of common people to show us the gentleness of God.  Jesus, the teacher of God’s almighty strength and power through his words and by his actions.  The Lamb, a sacrifice for the world’s sin then and now, bearer of a promise of eternal life through His flesh and by His blood the ultimate evidence of God’s divine grace.

The amazing thing is that God has not left us alone.  Instead, through the Holy Spirit, God remains.  Our Father wraps us up as though we were just a baby in a warm blanket, but just as a baby does at times, we fight to escape that embrace.  We struggle with free will, independence, and our misdirected belief that we need no one and that we need nothing other than what we can do ourselves.  Don’t get me wrong, I believe in self-reliance, however, we need God in everything we do and we should thank God for everything we have.  Our Father IS with us through the darkest of nights and the best of days.

Isaiah 61:1 speaks to me on what the Church, the body of Christ, is to and for the world.  It reads:

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom to the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.

This is exactly what we, as the body, should be doing.  We should be going out into the world and share God’s love through our actions, explain through words the sacrifice of the Lamb and the knowledge that we are never alone as the Spirit is always surrounding us.