How Big Is Your God?

The objects in this mirror might seem closer than they appear. I think the majority of us probably have a way of making the small things seem huge. Each and every day you and I will face numerous obstacles. Sometimes these problems can seem so big that you contemplate just throwing in the towel altogether. It just seems insurmountable this time around.

What's so amazing about this is that in a matter of days or weeks, we can't even remember the obstacle that seemed to overwhelm us. That one problem is now long gone, and we're faced with a brand new set of obstacles.

As I write this article, I'm sitting out on a balcony in the mountains of Colorado looking at what I believe to be one of God's most amazing masterpieces. In a few hours, I'm going to wander down to a little mountain stream with my fly fishing rod and spend a few hours in my own personal oasis.

This place does something rather amazing for me. It gives me back something that is so easy to lose in the mist of a crazy life: Perspective.

I can't tell you how therapeutic it is for me to be able to step back and reevaluate life, priorities, problems, etc. It becomes so easy to neglect the important things because I'm still so focused on the problem or obstacle that's rarely as big as I've made it.

I think of it like this: Nobody drives to the Grand Canyon walks right up to the edge of the cliff and then takes pictures of the rocks laying at your feet. That's just weird.

What do you do? You get out your panoramic lens and try to get the whole thing in the picture. You want a picture of one of the greatest natural marvels on the planet, not just a few bits and pieces.

If you're honest, you probably have a tendency to take pictures of the rocks in front of you. I do. I'm so focused on the little stuff or the problems that I forget that I'm standing in front of a chasm that is 277 miles long and up to 18 miles wide.

Perspective can be one of the most powerful things on the planet. When you have it, it can provide peace, clarity and direction. When you lose it, you can find yourself in a tailspin of uncertainty, stress and confusion.

When you jump into trying to understand the universe, the calculations begin to be mind-boggling. We begin using crazy ridiculous analogies to even give our minds a reference point for just how massive this thing really is.

We're talking about an area covering 150 billion light years and that's just what we think is there.

For some reason, most of us have a tendency to live in our own egocentric existences. As you begin to zoom out on your life, you can't help but begin to gain perspective for just how small you really are.

The moral of this story isn't to say you're insignificant. It's actually to show that you believe in a God that is so big that our attempt at analogies would only be humorous endeavors in something too great to comprehend. A God who created everything with a breath and yet intricately knit each of us in our mother's womb is mind-boggling.

Throughout the Bible, we get glimpses of the writers attempting to describe the breadth of God's power. Isaiah 40:12 describes God by asking, "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?"

The writers of scripture always used these anthropomorphic descriptions of God simply, so we as humans could attempt understand our limited ability to truly ever understand God. As humans, we will never be able to fully capture the ability, power and dimensions of the God we serve. I don't know about you but I really, really like that. As soon we begin to serve a God we can fully comprehend we, in reality, start becoming our own god.

I love knowing that I can spend the rest of my life pursuing a deeper relationship with my heavenly Father and that I will never come up empty. I find peace in knowing that my God is so big that I will never fully comprehend Him. I also take rest in knowing that there is nothing, absolutely NOTHING too big for my God to handle.

Matt Nelson is the lead pastor at City Church.