Picture: Josephpetepickle
Part 5 of an article and podcast series based on the book Unseen Footprints: Encountering the Divine Along the Journey of Life. You can find out more about the book here or order it here.
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Who is God? What is God like? Or, more to the point, What is your God like?
I remember once, as a 6 or 7-year-old, lying in my bed feeling hopeless. At the time my parents were involved in one of the world’s more zealous religious sects, and I was being raised according to its tenets.
As best as this primary schooler could, I contemplated what the God associated with this faith wanted from me. To have any chance of gaining his favour I’d have to knock on stranger’s doors every weekend, trying to convert them. I didn’t want to do that – I felt too shy. But then again, if I understood things correctly, I could visit every home in my town and there was still no promise that I’d make it to heaven.
Suddenly I felt trapped.
And life began to look like a sick joke.
I share a little more of that story in the podcast below. Basically put, all of us have an image or concept of God. It may be explicitly known or held in our subconscious, but we have one – pieced together from a variety of books, movies, conversations and experiences. The ideas we have about God affect not just our spirituality but our self-image, our view of others and even our view of the world. It’s therefore worth giving them some serious thought.
Uncovering Your Images of God
So, who do you worship? Who is God to you? Here’s an exercise I include in the new edition of Unseen Footprints to help uncover the images of God you hold. Take a journal or notepad and reflect on the following:
- Images: What pictures come to your mind when you think about God? Do you think of God as a strong father, a consoling mother, an indulgent grandfather or a bully? Is God a companion, policeman, friend or warrior to you? Do you imagine God as an artist, builder, king, judge, or something more impersonal like light, energy, wind, thunder, lightning or something else? Try writing, sketching or even photographing the images you associate with God.
- Characteristics: What words would you use to describe God’s character? Is God stern or merciful? Forgiving or punishing? Arbitrary or fair? Is God serious, compassionate, patient, angry, generous, vindictive or humorous to you? Use as many words as you need.
- Origins: Now consider how your ideas about God have been shaped over the years. What was your very first experience of being aware of God? How old were you, who was present, what was happening and what image of God did you develop as a result? How did this change in your teenage years? What about today? What books, films, courses, crises, conversations, paintings or other stimuli have shaped the way you presently imagine God? To the degree that you can, trace each image and characteristic of God that you wrote down back to its origin.
My initial understanding of God was shaped by my early religious experience. How many of us have thought of God at one stage or another as an old man with a beard, thanks to Michelangelo and other medieval artists? The point: our ideas about God come from somewhere.
So, who is God? What is God like? How different are our images and beliefs to God’s real nature? That’s where we’ll venture in the next post in this series. But not before your feedback below!
In the Podcast
Listen to the rest of Sheridan’s story in this 8 minute podcast below, or right-click here and ‘save target’ to download. The Unseen Footprints podcast is also available on iTunes.
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Question: How has your understanding of God changed over the years? Share your comment now.
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