An Introduction

Welcome to "God is ______," or "God is Stuff," because I'm not allowed to use "______" in a URL. I got this idea a couple weeks ago, in the aftermath of Rob Bell's "Love Wins" and the many controversies it inflamed. My friends and I, in a tongue-in-cheek attempt to come up with the thematic opposite of "God is Love" created "God is Fist." This version of God is everything love isn't (proud, boastful, etc. The whole Corinthians deal.) This version of God is not the version of God I worship. Nevertheless, it was fun to come up with, if not a touch sacrilegious.

God is fist bump, too

This inspired me to come up with some other "God is ______" statements, and I've realized it's really kind of a fun thing to do. By linking God and the traits I associate with God to seemingly random and bizarre everyday objects, I'm able to explore my faith and my specific beliefs in a way that feels less academic, yet somehow more revealing.

This is nothing new, of course. The bible is full of metaphors. When the writer of John says that Jesus is the light of the world, he isn't literally saying that Jesus is the sun. (Note: If you are reading this post aloud to someone else, use this time to clarify that Jesus is not the sun, with a 'u'. To the best of my knowledge, He is, in fact, still the Son, with an 'o.') In fact, Jesus (the Son, not the sun) seemed to prefer to use metaphors, or parables, to convey many of the truths of God. I absolutely can't guarantee that any of the truths I draw from my metaphors will be as accurate as Jesus's, but I'm doing the best I can to figure out the mystery of faith, and I assume that you are too.

I should take the time here to pre-disclaim that I personally believe that God is an all-powerful being that transcends human genders. However, for the ease of writing and to cover up the fact that I'll undoubted slip up every now and then, I'll likely be defaulting to masculine pronouns at times. Really it's just habit. However, for God, gender-specific pronouns become metaphor too, so I won't rule out my using some feminine pronouns when they seem appropriate.

God is a mother duck, anyone?

I'm looking forward to starting, and I hope you are too. I'll be writing the first post soon, with the expectation to about do a couple a week. Should be a fun ride, thanks for joining!

- Ryan