students of jesus

Chicago is my home town. When I hear someone say, “I’m from Chicago,” I immediately ask, “What part?” North side? South side? Downtown? Polish neighborhood, Irish neighborhood, Lithuanian, the projects, the suburbs, the Cubs, the Sox--what? It’s a big place: too big to be contained by any one description. Most people from Chicago have only hung out in a few neighborhoods.

The Creator of the universe is bigger than Chicago. A lot bigger. When we say, “I know God,” we make a laughable statement. We know him: but we don’t know all of him. He’s too big to be contained by any one description. If we know God at all, we are familiar with only a few neighborhoods of him.

Out of everything you know about God, where do you most often find yourself? In what neighborhood do you hang out? The answer says nothing about him but reveals so much about you.

I’ve discovered that we lean toward one side of him or another. A question like, “Which is greater: his power or his goodness?” asks nothing about God and everything of ourselves. Some people lean into his goodness. Others into his power. If we lean toward his power we see him in ruling in the affairs of men: we look for order and sense in our everyday lives. If we lean toward his goodness we see him as ever-present and empathetic, soothing and comforting those in need. Yet neither picture is complete. Indeed: both pictures together are not enough.

This week’s meditation asks us to leave the theological question alone for a while and consider: when I hang out with God, what neighborhood is most familiar to me? God as Father? God as ruler? Is he lover, friend, dictator, lawgiver, sin-forgiver, designer? Out of a thousand definitions my mind can only handle one or two. My heart, however, yearns for more: more of him.

I begin to discover the prayers of Saint Augustine: “Narrow is the mansion of my soul; enlarge it so that You may enter in.” Or C.S. Lewis, “Not as I imagine You are, but as You know Yourself to be.” These are some of the prayers of the wise, and the exercises of a lifetime. These are prayers we should pray.

When we become comfortable with only one or two neighborhoods of God we find safety and comfort, but it is an illusion: we begin to exchange the truth of who he is for a god we can contain or understand. Come, let’s explore other neighborhoods of him.