fashion

it’s so weird to me how even within christianity, people have so many different takes on God. i think that it’s a common problem that people try to fashion God to validate their identity rather that wanting to get to know God for who he really is. there’s this atheist argument that i heard the other day- when you take out the mass genocides, corrupt popes, loose interpretations of thou shall not kill, (and on and on)…religion is actually a force for good. i think these are extreme examples of what happens when we try to fashion God to our agendas. the other, probably more common thing that happens is that at some point we lose faith in the straw houses we’ve put up. and one day we decide that the God we know doesn’t really fit in the real world, so the whole thing begins to seem suspiciously made up. another way to look at it is that we can become the center of our own theology. in other words, everything in my faith needs to pertain to me, must benefit me in some way. it’s a very easy trap to fall into, really. yet another reason why i believe it’s so crucial for our churches to be completely God-centered.