TIME 100 - My 100-ish

Every year, Time Magazine publishes their list of the 100 most influential people. This year's list was full of fascinating people who have done some pretty incredible things. It got me thinking about influence, my future kids, and who has helped me. 

When my wife and I have kids, we want them to be surrounded by a plethora of people who will influence them. People who show them what it looks like to be a great husband or wife. Someone to show them how to work hard. Someone to show them how to dream. Someone to show them how to be a great friend. Someone to show them how to love unconditionally. 

But more than anything we want people to influence them and show them how to live like Jesus! 

Yes, it is our job as the parents to do this, but kids are raised by the community too. Betsy and I have incredible parents. We also had an incredible community who influenced us to become life long followers of Jesus. These people still influence us to this day. 

Thanks for influencing me and modeling what it looks like to live like Jesus.

(non comprehensive list in no particular order)

Moms, Dads, Tracy, Ed, Bethany, Fos, Johnny, Janelle, Don, J.K., Rich, Lori, Sheri, Tim, Clinton, Ethan, Jordan, David, Jason, Chad, Chelsea, David, Don, Ron, Tom, Brian, Marcia, Melanie, Kent, Tim, Rob, Dave, Todd, Jeff, Paula, Tim, Jan, Elaine, Vera, Barb, Michelle, Becky, Debbie, Joe, Cody, Chives, John, Brady, Miriam, Jonathan, Andrew, John, Dallas, Rob, Ann, Jim, Devin, Mike, Rob, Michael, Small Group Leaders, Trip Leaders, GNPC Leaders, College Teachers, Parents, Students, 

I hope I can be an influencer in someone else's 100. I hope you can too.

z

Why do we humanize God?

A couple of weeks ago, in our High School Bible Study class, we worked through a question that really made me wonder about God and how I am able to know Him. 

This semester we have been working through Questions. Each student was given a piece of paper and a pen. It was a blank slate for them to write down any and every question they have wrestled with over the years. It could be anything from "is gravity real" to something we all have struggled to answer at times, "how do I know God loves and values me even though my life is rough right now." 

Each question has been honest and heart felt. It is amazing to see the wisdom and humility that is in a room full of High School Students when you allow them to safely question and vent about life, faith, and their place in the universe. Questions are the best teachers. We learn so much when we ask honest questions and humbly seek out the answers to them.  

It has been a great semester. 

That question really challenged my inner world because I have become too familiar with the concept of knowing God.

The question was, "Why do we humanize God?" It is a simple question. So simple, that one confident high school student said, "This is really a stupid question because duh, Jesus was human and God" That is true, but it isn't a stupid question because yes God did make himself nothing to become human (Phil 2), but why He did it and what it tells us about God is far from stupid. It is incredible! 

We worked through various passages about how Jesus is the fullness of God. One of the best descriptions of who Jesus is and what God is like is Colossians 1:15 - Jesus is the image of the invisible God. When we see Jesus we see the Father. John spends much of his gospel working through this truth. 

What hit me the most in the discussion was that are able to actually know God. We can understand Him, albeit in a finite way. It is amazing that we can know God. He who created the universe and everything in it. He who made us. He who breathed life into us. We can know that God. 

We can know God because He makes himself known. We don't just discover Him. He wants to be known, understood, and sought after. Not because He needs it, but because we need Him. What I realized is that I take our human ability to know who God is for granted. It is too common. I think of knowing God in the same terms of how I know that pizza is so good! 

Pizza is only in our world. It is not transcendent. God is transcendent, separate from the universe. Yet, he chooses to incarnate himself so that we can know Him. We can know God because he reveals Himself to us! God uses words, images, culture, feelings, expressions, experiences in a way that connects to us so that we can know Him. 

God communicates to us through our cultural schema because He knows that if he didn't, we wouldn't be able to understand Him at all! What we know about God is what God has revealed to us. He reveals Himself in His creation (general revelation) and through His Word (Special Revelation). He desires for us to know Him 

So why do we humanize God? Because God humanized himself in language, in cultural and ultimately in Jesus so that we could know him. If he didn't, we wouldn't be able to know Him at all! 

THANKS GOD for seeking us out! 

THANKS GOD loving me so much and saving me and seeking me out so I can know about it!

z