Deutero Q

I recently came across two book reviews in Christianity Today that made me want to order the books being reviewed! The title of the first book is The Holy Wild. The author writes that God's love is as "tenacious as oak roots, potent as a typhoon. It is abrasive as much as it is soothing. It scours and breaks us before it sets us right--in order to set us right. It never lets us alone." I like that imagery. I like it because I am a bit weary of the attempts by many Christians to "soften" God and His ways. Consider, for instance, the feminization of much of contemporary worship. (Can you imagine Martin Luther, John Calvin, or John Knox singing and swaying to some of our insipid contemporary Christian choruses?!)

I fear we emphasize the "softer side" of God, while downplaying or ignoring His wrath against sin, His holiness, His judgments, etc. While I do not deny God's love, mercy and compassion (I stand in such desperate need of them!), I fear we too often try to create God in our image--we want a tame God, a manageable God, a God of love and mercy but not a God of holiness and justice. Too often, I think, our God looks suspiciously like ourselves. How important it is to remember that our God cannot be softened, "tamed," or put in a box.