Making God

God, we’ve made you too small.

Too small to handle our problems and pain,

Too small to have the answers,

Too small to create new possibilities

where all doors seem to be locked.

Our problems are big in our eyes.

They loom over us and speak defeat

into our hearts and minds.

They tell us, “There is no good future

for you.”

And your voice is silenced

because we believe the lie that says

all hope is gone.

We’ve made you too small.

We’ve made you too boring, God.

We’ve heard that there’s life in You—

real, amazing, abundant life—

but we don’t really believe that.

Instead, we believe our cravings and desires,

and we determine that life is more fun

when we give them what they want.

We say, “How could a life of self-control

and healthy limitations be fun?

How could surrender and obedience

lead to passion and feeling alive?”

We don’t see how our saying, “No,” to self

can lead to your “Yes.”

We don’t trust that You who created us

know our potential and will lead us into

a life that causes our greatest potential to

become reality.

We’ve made you too boring.

Oh, God, we’ve made you too nice.

We would much rather hear the message

that you want us to be happy and wealthy,

than the truth— that what you really want

is for us to be holy.

But becoming holy means burning away

all that is unholy.

It means taking the ax to the root and unapologetically

killing unholy things like pride, anger, lust, greed.

All the things that keep us

Self-centered

Self-promoting

Self-pitying

Self-righteous

We’ll take your forgiveness.

We’ll let you bless us.

But will we let you

strip us...

sift us…

purge us...

hold us accountable?

We’ve made you too nice.

God, we’ve made you too angry.

We’re afraid of you.

Afraid that the way you’ll deal with us

is to look down,

point your finger at us and say,

“You don’t deserve love, or grace, or forgiveness.”

We’ve made you too judgmental

of everyone we disagree with and dislike.

We take our judgments of others—

our hate,

our prejudice,

our disgust,

And decide that you agree with us,

and you become a god of

wrath, and scorn, and terror.

We take your words and make them say

what we want them to say.

We stifle you.

We limit you.

We shrink you down to a manageable size.

And when I treat you this way—

When I refuse to let You be You

All I am left with is a god that I have made

too much like me.