Ch. 6 The God Statement (continued)
Are you really GOD-centric?
To be GOD-centric is to be centered in a good and fair God of love. Centered means that this God of love is your ultimate concern and your foundation. To be centered in God, means that God is more important to you than money, pleasure, power, or possession. If God is your ultimate concern, then you would rather build God's Kingdom than build your 401K. Being centered in God has consequences. It is not lip service or an easy add-on to your current life; it is your life.
Good means that the God in which you are centered is morally excellent, virtuous, righteous, and pious. A good God does not smite people and a good God does not encourage you to smite people. A good God is not above morality; God is morality. If religious doctrine suggests that God behaved in a way that would be considered immoral if it were committed by a human being, then that religious doctrine is wrong because God is good.
Fair means that the God in which you are centered is free from bias, dishonesty, or injustice. A fair God does not choose favorites or give an unfair advantage to one group of people over another by providing a special revelation in a specific time, location, or language that would not be equally accessible to all. A fair God does not let sons suffer for the sins of their fathers or condemn a whole group of people for the actions of a few.
God is a Force of Love. God's love is active and relational and described in this way by theologian Paul Tillich in Love, Power, and Justice: “Life is being in actuality and love is the moving power of life… Love is the drive towards the unity of the separated. Reunion presupposed separation of that which belongs essentially together.” A loving God seeks relation with his creation and in return we seek relation with God and with each other as an expression of God's love. We belong together ~ you, me, all others, and God ~ and love is the force which unites us. Our seeking God transforms us and our realizing God is a process that never ceases.
So, are you GOD-centric? “Who isn't?” you might ask since I have pitched a pretty wide tent and even invited a bunch of miscreants inside. The answer is that people who are not committed to a good and fair God of love or to goodness and fairness expressed lovingly are not GOD-centric. Who is not committed to a good and fair God of love? A lot of people. Most of those people would not be comfortable recognizing that the God they profess to love is not always loving, good, and fair. This recognition may lead to some uncomfortable soul searching. Is your ultimate concern religious doctrine or God? If your ultimate concern is God, then I suggest that God should prevail over religious doctrine when doctrine contradicts God's lovingness, goodness, and fairness. I have been through this process and I know it can be painful but it is no more painful than living a life where certain questions are never asked and defenses remain high because you live in fear that the walls could come crumbling down. The GOD-centric person has faced the challenge of purging from their religious beliefs those that contradict a loving, good, and fair God while keeping and cherishing those religious beliefs and practices which celebrate our God of love.
If you are brave enough and love God enough to face a fact though it slay you, then I invite you to truly commit yourself to God's goodness and fairness expressed through love of all people and creation. I invite you into the big tent of the GOD-centric. For those of you willing to accept this GOD-centric invitation, you will find some practical advice on living out the GOD-centric commitment to love, goodness, and fairness in the next three chapters.
