God Can Be Pushy

 

Yesterday I posted this tweet after my evening walk. (Prepare yourself. It has all the coma-inducing sweetness of newlyweds.)

I love walking into the wind. I always feel like God's amazing love is enveloping me. #besthugever #nogreaterfeeling #fb

— Melissa Hatfield (@melissahatfield) June 5, 2012

Tonight I started my walk with a good deal of wind. I mean that literally and am 100% referring to a flow of gases outside my body. Okay. Maybe 95%. Anyway …. instead of feeling like God was enveloping me in love, I felt like God was pushing against me adding resistance to my walk. I’ll be honest – I was a little miffed. #notfunnyGod #whathappenedtomyhug

Work with me, God. Seriously. Give me some credit for getting off the couch and walking when I’d rather be watching mindless TV while mindlessly eating Doritos.

After a few moments, it struck me as funny that within twenty-four hours, my God went from lovey-dovey to being a pain in my arse. From newlyweds to old marrieds in a day. All because I met some resistance.

Wind is wind. Sometimes the wind is at your back. Sometimes it’s in your face. Sometimes God envelopes you in love. Sometimes God can be pushy.

______________

And sometimes God speaks into our lives out

of completely random things that God has nothing to do with

. Like the wind on a walk or a car accident or Christian film (God does some of his best miracles with things that appear to have no redemptive value.) I know God wasn’t hugging me or pushing me. The wind was a result of high and low pressure systems dancing together. Yet, God was on my mind when the wind blew and Sophia spoke to me while She had my attention.

I was reminded that it is so easy to morph God based on the current situation you find yourself in or the current emotions coursing through your soul. It is so easy to ascribe to God my issues and my limitations. Life going good? God probably seems good to you. Life in the crapper? God probably seems vindictive or at the very least, apathetic. God didn’t go from lovey-dovey to being a pain. My perception of God took that trip. And that kind of trip leads nowhere worth going.

“God created man in His image and then man returned the favor.” – George Bernard Shaw

It is easy to make God in our image. God suffers from an epidemic of transference from the created. There is so much baggage from our spiritual childhood and from generations before us that we thrust upon God. Where do we even begin to unpack?

Perhaps like any good recovery program it begins with admitting we have a problem.

Hello. My name is Melissa and I make God in my own image.

Want to join me? Grab the “comment mic” below and introduce yourself. What are some ways that you’ve made God in your image? Where do you see the Church “returning the favor”?