he doxa tou theou (The glory of God)

I feel inspired to write this blog after hearing one of the most beautiful truths I have ever heard in a quote, from St Irenaeus:

"The glory of God is a human being fully alive".

Over the past few months I've been meditating and reflecting upon the meaning of faith and the nature of God. For years I was obsessed with this idea that everyone had to be converted, and it was my place to go round preaching at people, judging their actions and shouting quotes from the Bible at them.

It's only really recently that I've matured and mellowed. Or, to put it more bluntly, I've grown up, and I've calmed down. And I feel that in this state I have, for perhaps the first time, begun to really sense the nature of God more fully. Obviously the Almighty is far too complex and above our understanding, and I wouldn't ever profess to have the confidence to grasp him/her. But what I feel the Divine has conveyed to me repeatedly is the crucial importance of love. Love for God is love for humanity. Love for God isn't preaching at people and telling them they're damned for eternity for not believing what you believe. Love for God is loving your parent, your partner, your friend, and no less your enemy, your persecutor, the stranger on the street, the stranger you may never meet.

What I pray is that I may one day glimpse how God sees His creation; seeing every person, woman, man, adult, child, black, brown, white, gay, straight, happy, unhappy, Hindu, Christian; as his beloved child. And I pray that I may always remember, whenever I see another human being, that the glory of God really is seen where a human being is fully alive.

Dangerous Ground

We are, as a society, living dangerously. Believers of many world faiths, particularly Christians, have been saying this for a long time.

But we have to face the reality that this has hit a new level. As a society, we are slowly but surely attempting to silence God - particularly Yahweh. This is a bad step.

If you happen to be one of the estimated 84% of the world who believe in a deity of some form and identify with a religion, you will hopefully be of the opinion that God is not somebody to be silenced. He is somebody to be embraced, worshipped, adored, and to some extent feared. He is, after all, the most powerful being in existence.

And yet cretins who seem to think that they are above this: be they mindless bureaucrats or simply irate parents complaining to schools about united assemblies.

And I, for one, fear for them. They irritate me, they make me sad, they make me laugh in pity, and they make me want them to open their eyes! But above this, they make me scared for them.

Because if, as I and billions of others believe (a third of the world believe), Yahweh is God - or even, more simply, that there is a powerful God in existence - then they are going to rue the day they ever started a battle with the Almighty One.

For He will, whenever and however, win that battle.