Box-Shaped God

“The problem’s not Hollywood, the problem’s not Washington
The problem’s a weak divided church of schizmed Christians.”
– The OC Supertones, Unite, Supertones Strike Back

If you’ve been spent amount of time around Conservative Christianity you may have heard the idea that every human has a “God-shaped hole,” a void in our soul that can only be filled by God. Oftened followed by stories of people who trying to fill this metaphorical hole with drugs, sex, music, earthly desires. These “fillers” tend have negative societal references.  However, debating the existence of a God-shaped hole is not what this post is about.  Let’s instead explore a new idea, the idea of a Box-shaped God.

Another popular theme of Conservative Christianity is the notion that we have actions that glorify God and ones that dishonor God. Although Biblically it’s true there are actions that honor God and ones that don’t our society seems to place value, weight and judgment to variety of actions. If you ask an individual which of these actions are more and which are less honoring to God each list will be different depending on their belief system.

What then is the “right way” to honor Christ? It seems that we tend to limit these glorifying actions to what fits inside of our God box. The box that holds our perceptions, our ideas of what God is and what God expects from us.  We are quick to limit our own responsibilities shaping our views of God to what we are, or aren’t. It’s easy to judge others and tell them that they aren’t honoring God. Next time think “Am I putting God in a box? Should I expand my view of God?”  By focusing on the good qualities of people, by getting to know their hearts and passion, though showing unconditional love, this is what God is. God is not (and cannot be) confined, to be held in a box.