The awkward God
What does the word "God" mean to you? The controlling God that a parent figure may have shown you? A distant God that does not have much interest in you? A touchy feely God that your retreat going friends pester the heck out of you to meet? A God that nations will go to war over? A God too big for your comprehension? A God never to be talked about at a cocktail party? A God who may only have interest in you if you do the right things at the right times? A loving God? A God to be feared? What?
My guess is that if there are ten readers reading this that there are ten different versions of God. I may go further and guess that six or eight of these versions strongly feel that their view is the only "correct" view. Most likely that is why we don't bring up God at a cocktail party. Who needs the that kind of tension in their life?
I too sometimes hesitate to bring up the word "God". Yet I don't like to back down from talking about what a relationship with the Divine can bring. I have had to find other ways to avoid the sometimes awkwardness of a varied outlook of God. Enter the substitute wording technique of evangelizing.
A few years ago somebody showed me the power of the word "energy". I can talk about my energy at a cocktail party. Nobody gets offended. Often they will share their own assessment of their current energy.
God after all is the ultimate energy. God is energy. God created all the energy of everything around us. We are only participants in this energy. I can have good energy (code word for being in relationship with God), Bad energy (not in relationship with God) , tired energy (the opportunity to seek relationship with God, or to continue chasing the ways of the world) , or no energy (the opportunity to surrender into the loving arms of God, or ignore God all together)
Other words I like to use in certain situations: the Divine, Creator, the Everything, Spirituality, Life purpose, reason for being, or ...
Peace,
Steve Arendt
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