Getting to know the Real God//God is Real Good

Today Pastor Ed asked us to clear our minds.

So I got my mind as clear as it can get.  Dark and empty.

And then he asked, "What is the first word that comes to your mind when I say, God?"

Big.

He then asked, "Does that word that came to your mind when I said, God, was it a good word?"

Hmmm.  Big.  Yes, that is good.

Good...how?

God is really big, right?  Bigger than you or I could comprehend, right?  Yes.  God is that big.

If I know and believe and think He is big. Do I think He is good?  Really, really Good???

Yes.

But...

The truth is, sometimes I don't live my life like God is good.  Sometimes I live my life like God is out to get me.  Sometimes I imagine God withholding good things from me to punish me.  Sometimes I imagine the bad things in life are what I deserve because I've messed up.  Sometimes I think God just wants me to hurt and suffer.  Sometimes I think God is fed up with me. Sometimes I think God just doesn't care.

Wow.  I hadn't even realized all of that before.

My head tells me God is good.  Sometimes my heart tells me, God is good.  Too often, however, more often than I'd like to admit, my feelings tell me, and I get stuck on...God being somehow, in some way against me.

I can honestly say with my head, I know this isn't true.  But my heart speaks to a different tune at times.

The next forty days, over the lent season, our church is taking a leap of faith.  We are jumping in and saying we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God is good.

We are asking God to act on our behalf in big ways.  (Isaiah 64:4)

It's all about letting go and diving in...wholeheartedly (my word for 2014).

If Lent means "springtime" and "renewal"...this is my season.  I'm coming into this stripped and empty, in need of guidance, love, and life.

I am searching for Him...and in that letting go of that which clamors and clangs in my life.

Letting go of extra noise....extra costs...extra calories...extra worries...extra stressors...and I am focusing on breathing, being, and praying.

Lord, help us of a little faith...to believe, to seek and to find...to meet You, for who You truly are...over the next 40 days.