A Bigger, Nimble, Mysterious God

Can you imagine a God without limits?

I can’t imagine that the God of the universe is limited to our ideas of God. I can’t imagine that God doesn’t reveal God’s self in countless ways outside of the symbol system of Christianity. In a way, I need a God who is bigger and more nimble and mysterious than what I could understand and contrive. Otherwise it can feel like I am worshipping nothing more than my own ability to understand the divine. — Nadia Bolz-Weber

Anglican priest J. B. Phillips (1906–1982) was famous for his 1958 translation of the New Testament in modern English, but five years prior to that he published a devotional book with the title Your God is Too Small. Which reminds me of a quote that makes its rounds on the Internet: “A God small enough to be comprehended is too small to be worshiped” (I’ve seen this attributed to Evelyn Underhill, but I’ve never found it in any of her writings that I’m familiar with). And here comes Nadia Bolz-Weber (b. 1969), the heavily tattooed, potty-mouthed Lutheran pastor whose call for a “bigger” God follows in this same tradition.

I once heard a clever Christian say “When an atheist tells me they don’t believe in God, I ask them to tell me about the god they don’t believe in, for chances are, I don’t believe in that god either.” In other words, the “God” that atheists reject is probably a god too small.

“A God is who is better and more nimble and myterious than what I could understand and contrive” is a mystical God; a God that cannot constrained by human logic or language or thought — or, for that matter, human bigotry and prejudice and dualism. The god who is too small might be the god of fundamentalists, but could never be the God of the mystics. One of the reasons why mystics rely so much on silence for their meditation and prayer is because only silence is capable of holding the God of infinite mystery who comes to us in a manner beyond what our tiny brains can comprehend.

Do not settle for worshiping a god created in your own image, or even in the image of your own finite mind. Let God invite you into limitless mystery and infinite possibility. Your only point of reference there will be love: divine love, infinite unconditional love. But that’s enough.