Are you wondering where I am going with this post after reading the title? Me too. I hold to the belief that everything good, true, and pure comes from God. Yet we fixate on parts of God's character & worship it instead of Him. Worshiping anything, even a part of God Himself, instead of all of God, is idolatry.
Our minds don't like paradoxes, so we pick and choose which traits to focus on. We downplay or ignore traits that our cultures don't value, that make us uncomfortable, or that seem to contradict other parts of God.
So we are essentially dismembering God. We take His love, cut it out, place it on a pedestal, worship it, and condemn others for not doing the same thing we are.
God is loving, but He is also wrathful.
He is jealous, but God is also compassionate.
God shows mercy, but He also exacts judgment.
He is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, but He is also the Lamb of God.
God offers grace, but He also demands holiness.
He is the leader of a heavenly army, but He is also the Prince of Peace.
God is to be feared, but He is also our hiding place.
He is the Eternal King, but He is also the Suffering Servant.
He told us to put away our swords, but He also told us He would bring divisions.
Some of these are easy to accept, but others are a challenge. We cannot only choose the traits, characteristic, and aspects of God that we like best, but rather we are to study all of Him, even the difficult bits. To worship God, we need to worship all of Him.
But we need to go further than simply recognizing and worshiping all of who God is. We need to be able to see Him in His creation as well. We like things to be clear-cut, tidy, and black & white, so we paint things and people with very broad strokes. We are all good. They are completely evil. Our political party is godly, but theirs is practically demonic. We don't see the good in "others" (whether we're talking about a political party, religion, nationality, or any other division of us vs. them), because we don't look for the good in them.
I say again, anything good, true, or pure comes from God. Anything that causes us to think about or remember God and worship Him is both sacred and godly.
This doesn't just apply to our group, but to every group in the world. Anything good comes from God. Anything that rings of divine Truth comes from God. Anything so beautiful that you breath a prayer of thanksgiving to God, comes from God.
There are snippets & fragments of God's Truth all throughout the world, because all good, pure, lovely, true things & values are God's. Even in other cultures or religions, we can find Truth that points us to God.
Parts of God's heart, but not ALL of God's heart, can be found in political party platforms.
Some of God's Truth, but not ALL of God's Truth, can be found in good art, books, and even other religions. This is not to say that all religions are equally good or all religions lead to heaven, but rather that anything good in any religion comes from God because He is the true source of all good.
So look for the godly, the Truth, glimpses of the divine everywhere and you will not be disappointed. Most of the time, we look for the good in our group and the bad in the groups of others...and we find it. Then we puff ourselves up while criticizing the faults of other groups. If they dare to suggest that our group has flaws...well, we deny, cast blame, or point fingers. This is a wrong focus.
If we look for the bad in our group and the good in others' groups, we will find it. We criticize ourselves for the past sins of our group, mourning the mistakes made by Christians long ago. We polish the best traits of other groups and put them on a pedestal, and lament that we are not better. This too is a wrong focus.
Instead, we should look for God in everyone and everything. Then give thanks to God for everything good that reminds you of Him. We should look for godly traits not only in our friends, but also in our enemies. God cares for the poor, the marginalized, the prisoners. He also cares for the rich, the powerful, and the oppressors. He wants to see everyone come to repentance. Remember that every good (godly) value comes from God. Just because someone else values something else does not automatically mean that they are valuing something evil. First look at what they are valuing and ask yourself if it is godly. We serve a complex God. Anything that rings of truth or focuses your eyes heavenward or causes you to think of the Creator, comes from God because apart from God, there is no other source of truth or goodness.
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