I was taking Time Out (youth group) on Wednesday evening past. It was pretty much planned that as it was our last normally structured night before Easter, we would have a look at something associated with what Christians believe Easter is all about. I thought it might be a good idea to try and get to grips with how the disciples may have felt after they saw Jesus coming back to life after he was crucified and put inside the Tomb.
We had an interesting discussion about this, and one of the groups afterwards progressed on to the question of how God has always been about since the start of time. I was pretty much making the point that because I am a Christian and believe that what the bible says is completely true, I therefore have to believe that God is a deity that has always been in existence, or as A.W Tozer declared “Whatever God is he is infinitely.” A Theology, that unless you are willing to push faith to its boundaries is actually incredibly hard to comprehend. One of the girls then simply said “yeah, God’s like a circle.” An analogy I had heard before but hadn’t spent too much time deliberating over. It’s true though that we can look at a circle and see that it doesn’t have a starting or end point and to be honest it doesn’t really bother me that much, what’s more important is that it is a circle, and acts like a circle.
Gods pretty much like that to me as well. I’m not reflecting too much on the analogy of God being like a circle, but I am concerning myself with not being that troubled of looking at a circle and considering where it might begin or where it ends. I’m just pretty content it does what it says on the tin and acts like a circle. So as with God, I’m really not that worried that I can’t specify when God was begotten, as I believe God was not, but I’m rather more interested in the fact that God does what God does, and interacts with me on a daily basis as a loving father and righteous judge.
Os Guinness writes that “God’s existence not only cannot be proved, it should not be attempted”, I take that to mean that we shouldn’t attempt to stretch our imaginations by trying to figure out how God has always been around. I would agree with this. We maybe would have enough to occupy ourselves with if we just stick to trying to obey God through the guidelines he has given us in the Bible, and also His constant interaction through the Holy Spirit, and the disciplines we should be carrying out to live a Spirit filled life. If we think we are getting completely on top of these tasks, then maybe we could preoccupy our thinking with big questions that we don’t have any answers for, or more importantly in the long run don’t really need to know the answers for. As Robert M. Horn writes, “God is not for proof but proclamation; not for argument but acceptance.” I don’t think I spend enough time praying to God, or praising Him for who and what He is, or being alone with Him, never mind try to discover the reasons behind his perpetuality.
Never ending,
always You will never end
Because, You’re always never ending,
You where there before there was beginning,
Always You where
You are never ending.
Here You are now with us
here we are found in You
And this makes all the difference,
this changes everything
making our whole existence
worth something so we sing…..you make all the difference.
D.Crowder
