right now at the refuge we’re focusing in on the trinity—God the father, the son, the holy spirit—their wild and crazy relationship with each other and what it means for us individually, corporately. it’s always interesting to me how in our spiritual journey, what we’ve been taught by certain pastors & leaders greatly impacts our theology. we take certain things at face value, assume what they are saying about it is 100% accurate, and often unintentionally automatically integrate their thinking into the way we approach our faith. when it comes to the trinity, i was always taught God the Father was the harsh and powerful boss & God the Son was his subordinate who was the go-between for us, the middle man that would make sure the boss didn’t fire us today. the Holy Spirit was his assistant now and then, kind of like the trainer who was making sure we knew what we needed to know to do the job. i don’t mean to be mocking what i had learned (well, maybe just a little) but thinking about this reminds me just how much man tries to squeeze God down into a manageable, explainable box. some of the teaching i received over the year made my relationship with God quite linear. known. predictable. workable. i am not saying that some of the things i learned earlier in my christian walk were bad, but i find God opening up my mind and heart to a bigger story, a more mysterious story, a radically more expansive view of the bigness and beauty of God’s character. It all feels a lot more wild, and sometimes a little more scary. i admit, I sometimes miss the A-B-C’s, 1-2-3’s of a relationship with God.
at the same time, I wouldn’t trade the last few years of my spiritual journey for anything because i am learning to rest in an important beautiful reality: i don’t know it all. i’ll never get my head fully wrapped around God. this side of heaven i can never fully understand all that i wish i could know so this crazy life would all make so much more sense. (i wish i was taught more of this thinking early on because what i learned is that if you read your Bible enough and understand the scriptures and integrate them into your life the way you are supposed to, you will know.) now, i am much more apt to read the scriptures with awe, questions, and wonder. they stir my heart and make me think.
last week i was hanging out in the book of john, chapters 15, 16 and 17. in the upper room Jesus shares so much about his relationship with the Father & how the holy spirit will help us. their intimate connection with each other reflects their desire to be in intimate connection with us. in john 17:22-23 Jesus says, “i have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. i am in them and you are in me. may they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.” when it comes to my spiritual journey, i don’t need to parse which part of the trinity is which and when—this time it’s God, the next time it’s Jesus, this time it’s the Holy Spirit. they are all reflections of the One. and i believe the One is always at work trying to get our attention, to permeate our hearts and minds and lives with this radical truth—he loves us. God loves us. he made us in their image to be in relationship with us the way they are in relationship with each other (and yes, we never fully can grasp all that that means and looks like but we can get a taste when we see Jesus connecting, submitting, and talking with his Father).
so what’s the big idea of the trinity? in this moment, my take is that it is a reflection of the fullness of God’s heart for us—that it was and is and will always be about relationship. that through relationship we learn more about his radical love, his heart for us as his children, his presence with us in the deepest parts of our story. God, fully divine, fully human, fully present. a beautiful mystery.
my impression of the trinity was similar to yours. that god the father was boss. somehow more important. it never occurred to me that they were equal, until i read the book, “the shack”. i think i’m starting to understand a little better. it is relationship/community the trinity models. that’s the key, i think. all equal and loving and interacting that way.
Nice thoughts!
I too had them down as good cop, bad cop with the spook in between!
I don’t know if you have read The Shack? Excellent book that gives a nice story that helps relate to the Trinity.
Lots of love!
Pops
mike - yeah, we are all growing and shifting aren’t we? in good ways because we are learning more about God’s true heart for us…
pops - thanks for stopping by. yeah, i read the shack and we are reading it as a community and talking about it together next week. i do think it was helpful in stirring up some great thoughts about the trinity. how’d you hear about this blog?
I have been on Jonathan Brinks one as well as Glenn Hager and they both have referenced your name Kathy, quite a lot actually!
so I got me lil fingers to do the walking and here I is!
Is it okay?
Lots of love!
Pops
pops - of course! welcome to the wild and crazy refuge! jonathan & glenn are both great & i love their thoughts. glad you can participate from across the globe….
Hi Kathy, you are braver than I. Sometimes I feel like I *would* trade my spiritual journey of the past few years to know then what I know now. That’s probably pain talking. Wouldn’t it be a great invention if we had hind-sight mirrors instead of rear-view mirrors in our cars? No more wondering what sort of persepctive things are showing up in (objects appearing closer or further than they really are). Instead, they’d show up just as they are, de-filtered from our lenses.
Anyhow…I agree, it’s a mystery. But it’s a mystery I haven’t thought about in a long time. For a long time now, I’ve put it away. I am reading The Shack and interested to see if it might shed (no pun intended) new light on the subect for me.
Take it easy,
Lisa
lisa - well i don’t know if i’d call it bravery, ha! yeah, a different lens and perspective is sometimes easier said than done. i am looking forward to our shack conversation on wednesday eve!!
[...] month about the beauty & mystery of the trinity (you can read more about it at the refuge blog here and here) and the timing couldn’t have been better since this was the week focused on the [...]