Hey, do you want to know my favorite movie?  Yeah, me too.   I don’t have just one favorite movie.  Same with songs.  People that say “Oh my favorite song is…” I just don’t get.  It depends on my mood, on what I’m doing, on how the day’s been.  I also don’t have a favorite Bible verse.  (Gasp, you know you want to.)  For a while, I chose Isaiah 40:31.  Everyone else had.  It’s the “They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” verse.  I used to quote it to myself when I’d go running at college.  That verse pretty much kept me alive.  Without it, I’d be dead on the running track or the sidewalk.

I guess it’s hard to pick a favorite _______ (fill in the blank) because as humans, we’re so complex and layered.  We’re three-dimensional.  To relate my entire being into just one song…  impossible.

Then again, maybe it’s the human way.  To understand what we can’t, we try to minimize it to a relatable size.  Humans do that with God too.  Read the comments on any news story on the internet or on a Facebook thread and you’ll see remarks that show that humans have very limited knowledge of God.  A one-sided perception.

Sometimes He may seem a little inconsistent.

You know that feel good verse Christians like to throw around.  From Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Greeeeaaaat.  Except that wasn’t written to Christians.  It was written to Israel.  Okay, so same prophet, same God, same nation but in a different part of Jeremiah we read, “The LORD of hosts, who planted you, has decreed disaster against you…”  Whoa, whoa, whoa!  That doesn’t sound like the God that has thoughts of peace!  Trust me, it wasn’t too difficult to find a verse like that.  That’s almost the whole book!!   Then again, the book is also woven through with God’s loving-kindness to Israel.  Context is key.  Picking and choosing verses to back up a fallacy isn’t going to do any good in the long run.

Does it bother you (or am I the only one that finds this a pet peeve) when someone who knows you in a limited way through one area of your life thinks they have your entire personality figured out?

Does it bother God when the world tries to put Him into either one of two boxes, the box of vengeful retribution or the one of non-judgmental love?

It’s only through getting to know Him that we begin to get a tiny glimpse of the God that can say in one verse, “I have decreed disaster for you,” but a few chapters later say, “I will give you a hope and a future.”   It takes time to get to know God and realize that He is more than our finite minds can accept, and that He has a great and glorious plan for the world.

The last two weeks, I’ve blurted out my thoughts on getting to know God’s complexity through time in His word.  I’m no where near where I should be, but I do know that I’ll have the rest of my life, on earth and in heaven to learn.  Ah yes, Eternity…. and the King and I.