Today the following quote from A.W. Tozer has been running through my mind:
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
I think it is a very powerful and challenging statement because I believe it is true. We I think we tend to become like what we truly believe God is like. To put it another way “we become like what we value.” Here’s the example that started me thinking about this.
Today I saw a couple of youngish females with what I would call “jersey hair.” There is probably a name for this hair style, I just don’t know what it is. All I do know is it reminds me of some of the extreme versions of seemingly dumb people on certain reality tv shows. My first thought when I saw these ladies hair was “why would anyone want hair like that?” You see I don’t like that style and I am very thankful that Pam doesn’t want hair like that. in fact, I think this hairstyle makes people look stupid BUT that is apparently not what these young ladies thought. Surely they didn’t wake up in the morning and think “this hair style will make everyone think we are dumb … that’s great let’s do it.” Nope, they styled their hair in such a manner because they thought such a hairstyle was somehow valuable to them. We become like what we value.
So how does this fit with God? Well I believe who we believe God is affects the way we live. Do you view God as judgmental? I’ll bet you are judgmental. Do you view God as liberal or conservative? You’ll probably be like whatever you think God is. Is your view of God hard on immigrants? Is your picture of God only gracious to certain people? Is your view of God taking care of the needy or congratulating the wealthy? Just like those two young ladies made their hair look stupid (my opinion) because they valued what that look represented, so we become like what we value about and think about God. If you and I truly think God is forgiving this will shape us into becoming more forgiving than we naturally would be on our own. If we truly believe God is a servant (Philippians 2:1-4) then we will be more serving than we would naturally be on our own. And so on and so on and so on. I have a book that I bought just because of the title that I haven’t read yet and the title summarizes this thought pretty well. The title is We Become What We Worship. I think it is a great title and I keep meaning to read the book to found out if it is any good or not. Still, a great title which is why it is in the stack to read.
I think the thing that scares me the most about this is the reverse angle of the question. What do the actions of my life right now betray concerning who I really think God is? Do I think He is selfish? Do I think He is just on my side? Do I think He just doesn’t care? I hope I live a little more each day in light of a growing understanding of the great God who is more than I can ever comprehend. I hope He changes me to be more and more like Him. Truthfully that also scares me sometimes.