Three Truths I’ve Learned About God

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“God is best known in not knowing him.”

Saint Augustine

There are times in our lives when we can’t help but wonder about the great questions and mysteries of the universe and our place in it. One of those times is when we are faced with either our own mortality or someone else's. Another time can be in a time of crisis or pain. Another can be in times of doubt or discovery.

No matter what the occasion is, we are faced with fundamental realities and glaring mysteries that give us pause and a time of self-reflection.

The mystery and wonder that is God is one of the most supremely asked and wondered questions we can pose as human beings trying to make sense of our own selves and the world around us.

As I get older I realize that the more I think I know about God, the less I actually know. My theology or understanding of God over the years has shifted and the stages of faith have allowed me to experience for myself what it means to know and understand God, or embrace what it means to not know. Change is equally a time to grieve and a time of opportunity. This rings true for those whose believes have changed, shifted, or decreased over the years.

Yet, there are some truths I can still articulate about God that give me great comfort, peace and understanding. These truths ground me in ways that allow me to be content with who I am. These discoveries allow me to grow in awe and wonder at the mystery of the divine. The wisdom received allows me to love others and myself at greater capacity.

Here, I want to share three truths I believe can either shape or reinforce your beliefs about God if you do indeed believe. For those that don’t, that’s ok. Take this wisdom however you wish, and know that I’m for you in your own discovery for truth and wisdom.

God is not constrained

The first truth I want to share is that our understanding of God is deeply limited, and therefore we could truly never understand the fathom that is the presence of God. Yet, many times we fall into the trap of thinking we know everything there is to know about God because of what sacred text teaches us, or because of our own supernatural experiences, or because of tradition that’s been passed down for centuries, or the belief that our faith is the only valid expression of the divine.

What I have learned is that God is not limited to one particular text, or one particular culture, or one particular religion or one’s own individual experience. God is deep and wide. God is here and there. God is in us, around us, through us, over us, below us.

God just is.

Finding comfort in that simple truth makes a profound change in how we view and practice our own spiritual beliefs and rituals. It enhances our understanding of God and it allows us to have greater compassion toward those who are different than us. We can draw from our own wells but know that there are other wells with living water as well.

God is still speaking

The second truth I want to share is that God is always communicating with creation. God did not just choose to speak for a certain period of time and then go hands-off and ghost us. No, God is still speaking and the wisdom that emanates from God is one that is meant to provide deeper insights into our own situations and on a larger scale in our own world. I believe that truth is truth no matter where you find it. I also believe we continue to discover new truths and realities that were unimaginable years prior.

Before Christianity there were belief systems and cultures in place that were convinced that their understanding of God was the only understanding and that truth began and ended with them. From Christianity’s culmination forward this belief has been perpetuated in a way that is harmful and at the very least unhelpful. I mean, why do some people want to believe that God only spoke for a determined about of time and then stopped? Isn’t it more freeing to say that God is always speaking because God is still involved, God still cares, and humanity is still alive.

God’s work is for everyone

One of the most unfortunate misconceptions about God’s work is that it is only for the religious professionals, and that all other people outside of that group have no power or voice in the work that God has for the world.

I remember when I was younger in seminary and I felt so cool being an ordained minister and how I was doing the “Lord’s Work,” like it was some kind of superior calling for the exclusive, “super-Christian”. Yet, I couldn’t have been more wrong. The work of God is so vast that it requires everyone being involved. God can use the minister as effectively as he can use a nurse, a social worker, an administrator, a teacher, a janitor, a CEO, and so forth. We all have this amazing opportunity to continue the common good and to love others as we love ourselves. God has placed within us each gifts and talents necessary to do what God wills. God doesn’t abandon us in God’s work but equips and uses us as long as we are open and available.

As little as I am convinced that I know much about God, I am assured that I know these three truths to be rooted in a firm understanding of myself and how God makes God’s self known to us and to the world.