who is God?

The other week at Bible study we watched a sermon produced by "Nooma" entitled "Kickball". If you ever get chance to watch it, it's pretty good and is filmed in a more artsy style. Anyways, the subject of the talk was about our desires verses God's desires for us. In short the conclusion is that God's way is always better. Very simple sermon with a very simple point.

However I was blown away with a simple thought towards the end of the video. The pastor, Rob Bell, closes by saying that there are a lot of hard things that happen in life that we do not understand. That there are questions that do not have easy answers. Yet despite these injustices and questions, "who do you say that God is? Because how you choose to answer that question will determine how you answer all the hard questions and situation in life."

While simple, it's actually a pretty profound idea. Who do I say that God is? And how does my answer to that question determine my outlook on unjust and unanswerable things in this world? I came to the conclusion that I'm not sure I have an easy answer to who God is. Every time I try and answer, I feel like I'm leaving something out. I think the closest thing I've landed on is that God is the Omnipotent, Unfathomable, Righteous, Father. But....that doesn't seem to do justice to who God is.

It's an interesting idea to think about who God is and what implications that would have on your life perspective. If I say God is a King, that leaves room for him to be perhaps unapproachable and so in response to hard situations I could say they have occurred because God is preoccupied somewhere else. If I say God is a Father, that leaves room for him to be completely relational and more on a buddy buddy basis and so in response to hard situations I could say that they occurred because God doesn't have enough power or authority.

All I can say is that God sure is indescribable, and maybe that's where I should leave it.