Like trying to fit the ocean in a cup

Last summer I asked a friend of mine how things were with him and God. He just said "Good, I guess," but I knew there had to be something more. He continued on and said that college has really changed his perspective about God. What's interesting is that he goes to a Christian university: in his Christian school's effort to ground him in his faith, the university has actually had the opposite effect, making him question his faith and pushing him away from the idea of Christianity. My friend said he was trying to figure out God for himself instead of automatically accepting every little thing about God spoon-fed to him as something he can "chew on." I totally respect that: I think every person who follows God needs to do so as one seeking the Lord with all their heart for who He is and not for who their church/pastor/or any other kind of influence tells them He is. My friend made another comment that I also completely agree with: he said he doesn't think that people are supposed to understand God.

This summer while at camp, someone talked one night about God's holiness. Now God's holiness is a whole other topic that I could get into, but I'll just focus on this: God's holiness is a concept that's hard to grasp. Our speaker said that we study God's holiness to appreciate Him, not to fully understand Him--that is impossible to do.

We can't understand God. We never will, not in our feeble, humanly state of mind. We study God to appreciate Him for who He is. Many people, however, take the study of God too far and try to understand Him: they try to define God and fit Him in some sort of box that easily classifies Him. That's just impossible though! To steal some lyrics from an awesome song by Josh Wilson, "it's like trying to fit the ocean in a cup" when we try to define God by our own human terms.

When I commented to my friend that people try too hard to define God rather than just accept Him for who He is, my friend interjected "But who is He?" All I could reply with is "He's God!" God doesn't want us to ask too many questions about Him: He just wants us to "Be still, and know that [God] is God." (Psalm 46:10)

The problem, however, with being unable to understand God, is many people don't want to put their faith in something they can't understand. We live in a generation where science is a prevalent part of our culture. Scientists are constantly trying to explain away the universe and how it works. Although it's fascinating how they can figure certain things out, it starts to take the wonder of something away when they try to explain every little detail. Also, scientists aren't always right.

I think a lot of people shy away from the idea of putting their faith in God when they try to explain Him but can't. But faith isn't about being able to explain something; it's about "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1). Our culture has a difficult time having faith because so many of us want something tangible that we can trust in, because we know it's there.

Bottom line: Don't try to fit God in a box. Study Him to appreciate Him for who He is. He's God! He's far too big for us to define with our limited vocabulary. As much as we want to understand everything in the universe, we don't have to, and we can't. We just need to have some faith.

And now I would like to close with a song by Josh Wilson:


I tried to write a song, and keep it 3 minutes long
Get in, get out, nobody gets hurt
And I tried a thousand times to fit God between the lines
But I'm finding out that doesn't really work

[Chorus:]
I just don't have the words to say, cause words only get in my way
I must apologize, I have the hardest time
Finding something to define a God that I canýt define
And even if I could, it would take way too long
If all I've got's a 3 minute song

I've got a hundred metaphors, and if I had a million more
I could never ever seem to sum this up
Besides, how can some melody communicate eternity?
Itýs like trying to fit the ocean in a cup