A Designer God

There is not much debate about the teachings of Scripture that we, humanity, are created in God's image. In this we get clearly God is creator and we are created. Still there is an interesting, some would say alarming, trend taking place among humanity, we are creating God in the image we want to see. Not only have the roles of creator and created been reversed, but the buffet has been opened and each person may pick and choose what God will look like and be to them. In this process humanity has created not one God, rather several designer versions.

Now there is a great struggle here because God is bigger than any one understanding, and God connects with people where they are at. This allows for each person to have a unique experience of God. At the same time, God is not limited by one person's experience, and one person's experience does not show the totality of God. In the midst of this tension we end up with a God that has become a designer God. A God where we manipulate the image of God to meet our lives.

The time has come to remember who the creator is and who the created are. When we find our lives, feelings, and desires do not match with our understanding of God, it is not God who needs an image makeover. Yes God is bigger than we can imagine, at the same time not every image and understanding of God is accurate. How are we to know then if we are inbounds or out? Seek God with all we have and all we are.

How I understand God today is very different than how I understood God ten years ago. It is not God who has changed, it is my understanding. Rather than create a designer God, who looks like I want, I am working on becoming a designer person, who looks like the creator wants. This means putting into practice the words, "Thy will be done". Over the years this has meant change in my life, thinking and practice. This has meant I do not always know what is best for me. This has meant some of the things I really want to do and think I should do, I have had to deny myself. Fore it is not unto us that God lives, it is unto God that we live.