111907

November 19, 2007

Is God All Brain?

by Shana Schutte

In a letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne, American author Hermann Melville wrote, "...the reason the mass of men fear God and at the bottom dislike him is because they rather distrust his heart, and fancy him all brain, like a watch."

If God is all brain, what kind of God do we have? We have One who yells rules and instructions without thinking about who He's shouting at. He's like an accountant bent on finding the smallest error in our character, just so He can point it out. Or like a prison guard watching to see if we make one wrong move, only to sentence us to another ten years. If we fancy God as all brain, His ears must be deaf to our cries, and His heart cold to compassion.

Certainly, there are times when all of us see God as all brain--times when life disappoints and He seems distant; when we called and it seemed He was too busy to concern Himself with love. If we see God as all brain, the trials we go through and even the details of our lives are as nothing--because why would He care?

But is this the God of the Bible?

When we turn our eyes to the cross, it yells so loudly about love that it shatters any lies I've believed that God's brain is bigger than His heart. Across the 2,000 years since Christ's death, it shouts, "Do you know how much I love you!"

God is so much heart, how can we miss it? His heart bled red for us, wept tears for us, and cried out on the cross, "Father, please forgive them, for they know not what they do." His heart holds us when we're sad and comforts us when we grieve.

How can we see Him as all brain unless we are blind?

"The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: 'I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with lovingkindness" (Jeremiah 31:3).

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