Posts Tagged: choosing confusion

“God in All His Puzzlingness”

On October 14, 2021 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“Is. 45:15        Truly, you are a God who hides himself,

                        O God of Israel, the Savior.”

I was doing my gratitude list this morning, and I finished my list with the words “God in all his puzzlingness.”

I was puzzled by this. And, yes, I know that “puzzlingness” is not a real word, but perhaps it should be. Frankly, there are a lot of things about God that puzzle me.

I am somewhat comforted by the struggles of others with the puzzling nature of God. For example, Christopher J. H. Wright—in a book appropriately entitled, “The God i Don’t Understand [1]—acknowledges, “I live daily with the grateful joy of knowing and trusting God. But knowing and trusting does not necessarily add up to understanding. Even knowing somebody very well is not the same as understanding them fully, as the most happily married couples will readily testify.”[2]

I am also comforted by something my systematic theology professor said many years ago: “If you’ve got a god you can get your mind around, you’ve got an idol just as sure as shootin’!” Thank you, Dr. Tom Parker!

In twelve-step programs, we talk a lot about “the God of our understanding.” This is pretty generic, but perhaps it should be even more generic. How about “the God of our puzzlement”?

Now, don’t get me wrong. There are some things that I think can indeed be known about God. However, as I get older, I am more and more tolerant, even appreciative, of the unknown aspects of God.

Of course, many (probably even most) of my puzzlements are due to my own willingly chosen confusion. The truth is that I don’t always want to understand God as God is. I would much rather have a god who is made in my image.

Also, I confess that I’m not particularly good at understanding my fellow-humans as they are. I find them recalcitrantly puzzling. Why should I expect God not to be puzzling, really?

But perhaps the puzzling nature of God is not a problem, but a blessing. Perhaps “puzzling” is another name for “Mystery”. And the word “Mystery” is capitalized for a reason. Maybe I should give thanks for God’s puzzlingness more often.

[1] Christopher J. H. Wright, The God i Don’t Understand: Reflections on Tough Questions of Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008). And yes: The “i” is lower case in the title of the book. Wright seems to be trying to wrestle with his reflections with the attitude of a little “i”, rather than a big I.

[2] Ibid., 13.

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