LIMPING ALONG WITH GOD

Limping, attached to God

What's the big idea?
"Wrestling with the question of God is intensely personal. And none of us can escape it. You are who you are alone before God. Nothing more. Nothing less. What you do with the question of God shapes and colors everything in and around you...Whether you know it or not, you have a relationship style that impacts how you do--or don't do--intimacy with those you love, and in particular, with God. That's what the profound invitation of the Bible is all about: to be in a meaningful relationship with God." (Dr. Tim Clinton & Dr. Joshua Straub, "God Attachment," p. 18).

So what?
God and what to do with him cannot be escaped, regardless of our degree of spiritual inclination. Convictions about God are at our core. And as such, they impact every aspect of our lives, from the more routine (e.g., decisions about free time) to the deeply personal (e.g., beliefs about afterlife). How we view God and his interest in us greatly impacts our experience in human relationships. Likewise, how we connect with others greatly impacts our experience of God. The great news is that God knows all of this--the good, the bad, and the ugly--and befriends us right there on that basis, and then steps out with us in a lifelong walk of increasingly healthy, meaningful relating.

Now what?
Like many of you, I walk through life with an anxious limp, favoring a gait that at times leads me in circles of fear. Past experiences as well as patterns of relating to others have shaped me in this way. And due in great part to this, I also tend to walk with God favoring this anxiety-laden, fear-of-abandonment limp. So how about you? What's your style of relating to others, especially to God? Whatever it is, an important first step to growing through this challenge is to (1) write down a few life experiences that you think may have shaped how you relate to God, and (2) what (if any) difference he makes in your life now. This will provide you some needed insight, which you can then turn into movements toward your desired relationship with God (and these I'll address in future blogs).

--S.a.t.S.