[Difference Makers ls] God of the Universe and Little Ol’ Me Sampel

Vast and Precise

Think how big the sun is. You can take 109 Earths and line them up across the sun; that is how wide it is. Yet our sun is a just a medium-sized star in one of 100 billion galaxies. 

God is so vast that He knows every star by name. He knows all that has happened and will happen. God is so precise that He knows the number of hairs on your head and every word on your tongue before you say it. He is so vast that he could do anything in your life, but He is so precise that He will only do and take you through what will bless you in the long term. It may be painful, but His plans for you are good. 

A key to spiritual growth—and I hope that is what you want in your life, and why you come to church—is understanding God’s transcendence, or vastness, and His intimacy, expressed in precision. We get off in the ditch on both of those. 

We go, “Transcendence. Oh, God is so big. He is a force. All roads lead to God. He is so distant. He wound us up like a clock and let us do our thing. God, you handle Heaven, I will handle the office, and never shall the two meet. He is so transcendent that He is up there—somewhere.”

Or, we focus on intimacy so much that we imagine God is deeply involved in our problems. He gets stressed out when we cannot find a parking spot at the mall. He is so into us, and all our itty-bitty problems, that all we do is pray about them and never think about making a difference. We so personalize our Savior that we can no longer transfer our Savior. 

Spiritual growth happens when you exclaim, “God, You are amazing. You are so vast, and I am a grasshopper. You are God Almighty, transcendent, resplendent.” And spiritual growth also happens when you say, “You care about my innermost needs. I want to share with You things I have never told anyone else. I want you to work deep within me to redeem my past and transform my misery into my ministry.” That tension is where spiritual growth happens.

Do I see that the vast, transcendent God of the universe cares intimately, and precisely, about little ol’ me?