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Brennan Manning, in the Ragamuffin Gospel, shares this story: “The story goes that Thomas Aquinas, perhaps the world’s greatest theologian, toward the end of his life suddenly stopped writing. When his secretary complained that his work was unfinished, Thomas replied: “Brother Reginald, when I was at prayer a few months ago, I experienced something of the reality of Jesus Christ. That day, I lost all appetite for writing. In fact, all I have ever written about Christ seems now to me to be like straw.”

That quote is one that has always slain me, knocked me to my knees in the realization that my words will never be able to capture the majesty of who God is. When I decided to take the fall to meditate on who God is, I realize that I was embarking on an impossible task. As much as I prepare, as careful as I am to share what the Bible says, some day I will look back at what I have said and laugh – it will seem to be like straw.

God. What do you think of when I say God? How do you conceptualize God? What pictures form in your head? Perhaps an old man in the sky, or a light, an invisible Spirit, or even Jesus. What do you feel in your heart? Awe? Mystery? Fear? Love?

I have found that often people go to church desiring practical sermons on love, work, raising kids, and church growth experts will tell you that if you want to grow your church than preach “how to” sermons on such practical topics; but I tell you there is nothing more practical than this – who is God. Because everything depends upon your view of God. How you spend your time, what your priorities are, your attitude towards money, possessions, relationships, even yourself – it all depends on your view of God. Is He good? Can you trust Him? Will He provide for you? Does He heal? Is He looking to judge you? Does He love you? And everything depends on accurate understanding of those terms – what does it mean and not mean that God is healer? That God is love? That God is a judge?

So this fall, I will be spending time meditating on and sharing about God, who God is. Please understand that this is not science in that we are observing and testing and dispassionately learning; this is a knowing that is born out of relationship. As the theologian Stanley Grenz wrote, “The attributes of God are not scientific, objective knowledge about God, but are expressions arising out of our experience of the God who stands in relationship to humans and the world. God cannot be known merely by means of an intellectual grasp of various assertions that purport to describe his eternal nature. God is known personally through personal encounter, and never as an object which we scrutinize.”