As I’ve been reading both Rick Warren’s book, Purpose Driven Life, and Brother Lawrence’s “Practicing the Presence of God,” I realized that the constant reference to God in masculine terms seems to get in my way of developing a deep sense of connection to the Divine Source of All. It may be due to my Southern Baptist heritage that has my image of a male God as an angry old man with a lot of white hair who’s constantly judging me and finding me a sinner.
On the other hand, I realize that God is so big, omnipotent, omnipresent, and all those big words, that I can never fully comprehend God. I remember an old phrase from my Landmark Education days ‹having a relationship with that which is unrecognizable to be related to). It’s a real challenge.
I’m also a fan of the idea that one of our Business On Purpose Experts, Jan Stringer, shares about how we can attract to us our perfect clients/customers by first becoming clear what are the qualities and attributes of those perfect clients. So, I figured I’d try that approach to get a clearer sense of what my image of a Perfect God would be. Here’s what I came up with:
LOVING – God is Love, unconditional, Universal Love. So, if I want to have an ever-deepening relationship, it means being present to and experiencing this love throughout my life. Wow, not a bad start. In fact, I could probably stop there and practice having this relationship with God and the inquiry would be worthwhile. But I’ll continue.
CREATIVE – God is creativity. After all God created everything. So, the more I’m in touch with and freed up to be creative, the more intimate is my relationship with God.
CARING AND COMPASSIONATE – In other words, God isn’t that angry old man up in the sky constantly judging me and focusing on all my faults. God is pure forgiveness, caring and compassionate.
GRACE FILLED – God has created this world to work in the favor of life. Life really isn’t fair. It’s rigged in our favor. God wants us to win, to experience the fullness of life. So, if my life isn’t working, I’ve really been putting forth a great deal of effort against this natural flow of grace. If I want a more intimate relationship with God, I’ll stop the struggle and allow myself to be carried along the flow of this grace filled Universe.
FUN AND FUNNY – If you don’t believe God has a sense of humor just look at the aardvark or platypus, or in the mirror on a bad hair day. God really does enjoy a good laugh. Like my minister often says after telling the congregation a few lighthearted jokes, “Forgive us Father for we have grinned.” Of course, we don’t have to ask for forgiveness. God is laughing right along with us, so this means not taking myself quite so seriously, and being able to find the light side of any situation.
Ok, this is a pretty good start on a list of qualities and attributes of a Perfect God and how we can have a relationship with such a God. But I bet some of you reading this have a few items you’d like to add to the list. Why not do so by posting your comments on our Living and Working On Purpose Blog at: http://www.wbradfordswift.com/lop/blog.
