I Like My God More and More, and Wish More People Truly Knew Him

 

 

I recently read “Metamorphoses” by Ovid. Written over 2000 years ago, it is a long-form poem in the Greek classic tradition, at times sensual or absurd, creating or evoking contemporary mythologies that remain popular to this day. 

As a person of a specific faith persuasion, when I read the classics I take great interest in how gods are portrayed. And, whether it is Ovid or Homer or Virgil, there seems to be a common thread, which is, on a shallow level, these gods are hilarious, and on a deeper level, these gods are troubling. 

The theme of “Metamorphoses,” naturally, is “change.” And usually what that means is that some god has decided that, even though they are supremely powerful, a pretty girl catches their eye and lust takes over, and then afterwards either they or their wife punish the pretty girl by turning her into a tree or a bird or a rock. There’s a lot more to the poem than this, but suffice to say that the gods in this book were not the kind of people you would want to introduce your daughter to. 

Vain, impulsive, vindictive, power-mad, violent, and unrepentant: these are not good characteristics for anyone, let alone a god! On a surfacey level, gods as described thusly are the kind of people who immature frat bros would say would be fun to hang out with. And, I suppose for many people, taking religion too seriously is uptight or worse, and life is about having fun so what’s the harm in having gods like this?   

Of course, if you harbor serious beliefs about the divine, you aspire for your god to have more noble traits. Which is why I lament how much we have defiled the image of the God I believe in. Not that I wonder why people harbor such foul opinions, given how royally we His followers have mucked up His reputation through violence, oppression, and abuse in His name. 

Which is such a shame. Because if you take the time to get into the original texts, and spend real time in community with others who seek to represent His presence among us today, you will experience things we humans long for, like acceptance and redemption and affirmation and instruction and correction and love. Each day I walk this way, I like my God more and more, and wish more people would truly know Him too.