Monday, June 19, 2006 · no responses · comments closed

Poetry is challenging for the majority of my students, both because of unfamiliarity and because of poor teaching in the past. Most of my students have apprehensions and misconceptions about poetry, and so I will often introduce it by writing on the board “When I think of poetry…” and asking them to complete the statement by writing for a few minutes. When students read their responses, I hear things like “it’s hard to understand” and “it doesn’t make sense.” There is the student who loves poetry and has been looking forward to discussing it all semester, but there’s generally only one in a class of thirty-five.

I suspect that if I ask my students to complete the statement “When I think of God…” I would get pretty similar responses. Ditto, my neighbors and coworkers and even fellow Christians. There are a lot of apprehensions and misconceptions about God, and I’ve had my share as well (and undoubtedly still do!). Luther suggests that if we want to strengthen our faith, we should look beyond Christ on the cross to His heart — -the reason He was there.

After this, move beyond Christ’s heart to God’s heart. You will see that Christ wouldn’t have shown you love unless God in his eternal love had wanted him to. Christ is being obedient to God when he loves you. You will discover the good heart of the Father, and, as Christ says, you will be drawn to the Father through Christ. Then you will better understand what Christ says in John 3:16, “God loved the world this way: He gave his only Son.” We recognize the nature of God best, not by thinking about his power or wisdom, which are terrifying, but by thinking about his goodness and love.

Ask a hundred people to write down what comes to mind when they think of God, and I bet many wouldn’t list “goodness and love” first. Why is that? Several reasons come to mind, but two are at the top of the list: poor preaching and poor witnessing. I grew up in a loving Christian home, but I was terrified of God because of what I heard at church on Sundays. I prayed every night in bed because I was afraid of what would happen to me if I died in my sleep. But fear doesn’t get people very far, because fear is a poor motivator.

Gregory Dickow says that “you can’t scare the hell out of somebody. You have to give them something better that they would want to experience.” And so I look at myself: does my life look like something better that someone else would want to experience? Are my children and my marriage something better that others would want to experience? Recent statistics suggest that divorce is at least as common among church-goers as it is in American society in general. That’s not giving something better.

I’ve found that at work it’s easy to complain when I talk with my coworkers — -but am I offering something better? Am I showing them that Christians gripe and complain or that Christians have a more positive perspective? If my word and actions show what I think of God, what do people see? They aren’t likely to see something they would want to experience if I don’t have something I would want to experience. If I’m a Christian because I got “hell scared out of me,” then I need to go back to my own list: “when I think of God…” What’s at the top of your list?