The Glory of God

There's one more thing to keep in mind before we really jump in. If you can understand and accept that it is necessary to let go of what we think we know to allow God to give us some of His truth and understanding then let me propose another “misconception” I find a lot of Christians have about the bible.

It concerns the Glory of God.

Now what I hear a lot, and see if you don't experience this too, is that whenever we tell a fellow Christian they have done something especially cool, they respond by saying “It's not me. Its for the Glory of God.”

Neat, huh?

Now what I'm about to say is not meant to take anything away from that at all. What I'm going to say is meant to make it more meaningful.

What exactly does the “Glory of God” mean?

The way its used seems to mean something like if its good then lets agree its God's fault.

This is important. In my old life if something good happened it was me, I did it. And if its something bad then its God's fault. Part of my “repentence” (which yes means to turn away or change direction, but it also means to go beyond my current mind or understanding) included changing how I looked at it. Now if something good happened, God gets the credit and if something bad happened it was my fault. I needed to do something about it.

This was very necessary in order to change or transform my life. I needed it.

But the longer I did it it became clear that that wasn't the whole story.

In hebrew the word used for glory is kavod. It means “weight or significance” or “awe inspiring”.

Nowadays people throw the word awesome around as it means “cool”. But really it is much bigger than that. Wanna understand what awe really means? Go experience, on the ground and in real life, the detonation of a cluster bomb in battle. Or a Fuel-Air Explosive device. Or a thermo-barric bomb.

You suddenly understand your own insignificance in the great scheme of things.

In the book Miracles by CSLewis he describes how awe gave rise to religion in ancient man. His descriptions and explanations of this “Numenescent Awe” is a good description of coming face to face with true spiritual power.

Its coming face to face with your own insignificance in a very real way.

There's this TV show I saw a couple times called “Ghost Hunters”. I'm not going to make any comments about it. But in this one episode there was an incident where one of the new investigators was slapped by a non-corporeal entity. The old-timers said that this happens sometimes, and you have to be prepared for it happening if you're going to be a ghost-hunter. Something seriously violates your sense of self and there is no way to fight back.

The look on this guy's face was very real. He wasn't the same for the rest of the episode. His world had been completely scrambled in a very real way.

He got a taste of his insignificance in the face of something incomprehensible and un-fightable.

There are times when the weight and significance of God is unmistakable. This is the Glory of God.

Sometimes we find it in nature. Once when I was a teen living in a very rural area, we were expecting snow, the first snow since I had moved there. But the sky's were clear. It was very windy and cold, but the skies were blue. I climbed the highest of the mountains around, and at the top was a pile of boulders, so I climbed them too. In gusting 20 knot winds. I stood there at the highest point possible, facing the wind, which also happened to be the west and the sun was starting to go down, and looked farther than I ever had before. As this ripping and tearing wind sliced through every cell of my flesh and hair, I watched as the black tendrils of clouds miles away seemed to reach out to me seemingly at the same height I was like the fingers of some massive hand stretching out to me.

Believe me, I'm not doing it justice.

I've had moments of joy like that.

Once a woman broke my heart. I was so depressed for days, and just really questioning the purpose of living. My friends tried to console me with drugs and alcohol and some of the activities we used to do, like playing cards or something. I swear after three days straight of putting plenty of chemicals in my body my depression far outweighed any high. I felt nothing but miserable. Finally I just gave up and prayed. God I need help. Real simple.

What I received, immediately, was so real, so palpable... it was like a warm blanket wrapping every inch of my being, and suddenly everything was alright. It was a very significant moment. The first time I truly experienced the power of God in a real way.

What ties these and other events together, and I'm sure if you looked you'd find some in your own life too, is the very real and palpable feeling of a presence. And to be honest, that presence is there and just as real no matter what we call it. It exists whether we call it “God” or not. It is what it is.

And that is the Glory of God.

Joy, happiness, tears, pain, sadness, fear, battle, death, destruction, music, children, romance, the simple connection we find with someone we've never met before, the simplicity of saying “me too” to someone at the lowest point of their life, sitting in silence with friends or family that is as comfortable as the womb... sex! Bathing! Sitting in the kitchen watching a cockroach, staring out the window into the rain.... Spiritual experiences can happen anywhere anytime, and they can never be explained to another person. Not in a way that does it justice, because it is so much bigger than we are... that's the nature of it... it makes us realize both our significance and our insignificance at the same time.

Its glorious.