So, how was your first week of Lent? Any unassuming epiphanies as your surveyed your soul and reflected on God and the wilderness? It was a gift to read your descriptions of your soul; thank you for such stunning candor.

This week we’re going to crane our necks to look back on our story and explore how our particular set of experiences, our personal plotlines, might have affected our understanding of God.

As we begin, consider how you would describe God to a stranger? If your closest friend asked you to describe God, what would you say to him or her? What if a religious professional asked you the same question, how would you respond?

ANCIENT STORYLINES

Right before Jesus goes into the wilderness he gets drenched in water, more precisely he is baptized. All of the Gospels, or biographies of Jesus, capture this marker event in His life (see Matthew 3:1-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:1-21, John 1:19-34). A tome has been written on the meaning of Jesus’ participation in this ritual. However in the midst of the images and implications, what strikes me is 1) Jesus’ solidarity with humanity and 2) Jesus’ standing as Son of God. I am, of course, befuddled and bedazzled by someone being fully human and fully God.

Jesus went all out to align himself with the human cause. But this week I am reminded how different Jesus’ experience of living in skin was from everyone else’s. No time in his life did he not know God, the true God. And, his intimate knowledge of God was inextricable tied to his own identity. His view of God didn’t get hijacked by self-esteem issues, or by an aloof or emotionally abusive father, or by his own selfishness. At Jesus’ baptism a voice from heaven, God’s voice, declared, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” That had been true for an eternity, and would not waver one bit when Jesus headed out into the wilderness. Jesus’ understanding of God and His very identity would soon be put to a brutal test, but Jesus would carry the mark of the water and His Father’s words with him.

Jesus wasn’t the first to pass through water before being tested in the wilderness. Around 1500 years before, a collection of people called the Hebrews, were sequestered in slavery. The Egyptians had initiated them in a forced labor program for about four hundred years. God calls an ethnic Hebrew shepherd/former Egyptian prince named Moses to rescue the Hebrews and take them to a promise land. It turns out to be one of the most elaborate rescue missions in history (entailing plagues which represented the defeat of Egyptian gods, and for the finale the Red Sea morphs into a walking path with aquariums on both sides). Impressive.

Yet three days after the Hebrews saunter across the Red Sea dry and get into the desert they start complaining (Exodus 15:22-16:36). Where’s good water? What do we have to eat? And perhaps below those grumblings were more questions: Is this God going to really take care of us? Is He up for the task? Is He really good? Can we truly trust him?

The Hebrews, who would become known as the children of God, again and again lost sight of the true character of God. Their gut view of God got distorted. Perhaps it was due in part to being enslaved for generations, and due to their selfishness, and due to a million different ways they—and we—search for mirages instead of being marked by the waters of transformation and love.

PROVISIONS FOR YOUR LENTEN JOURNEY FOR THE NEXT SEVEN DAYS

REFLECTION: While we may describe God in lofty terms and hold an intellectually sophisticated and sturdy view of God, I believe our gut-view of God, like the Hebrews, can get distorted.

When we get pressed into situations beyond our control, when circumstances strip of us our confidence, when disappointment consumes us often our gut begins to question the goodness of God. When a friend or a lover betrays us, when marriage or parenthood collapses or seems like it will never come, our gut can suspect that God plays favorites…and that obviously we aren’t one of them. Or, when we land a business deal, snag our dream guy, or get a raise, our gut may forget that God had anything to do with our success.

DISCUSSION: Describe the god of your gut. When you get squeezed into tight and tricky scenarios, what are your most candid assumptions of God? What circumstances and people can play into your gut view of God being distorted?

How might the god of our gut be different from how we’d describe God to others?

How might God desire to begin to heal the god-of-gut and align our understanding of God with God’s true character? If you, like Jesus, always knew God loved you and was well pleased with you, how might that affect your view of God?

[To share with the group, go to the DISCUSSION BOARD]

IMAGE OF GOD: See the photos and the DISCUSSION BOARD to contemplate how God reconciles the god of our guts with who He truly is.

CONFESSION: As we discussed last week Lent is a time of reflection and confession, so let me share with you a snapshot of my own struggle with the god of my gut. One of the most pronounced ways my view of God has gotten distorted is by my singleness. I have described God as a good and generous Father, but a few years ago realized I had serious doubts whether God was good enough to care for my heart. God could be trusted to provide me with exciting adventures and fulfilling work, but could I entrust my deepest desires to love and be loved to Him? It’s those deepest desires that put our gut-view of God to the greatest test. The god of my gut often seemed unreliable when it came to matters of the heart. Perhaps God was good to take care of other people’s hearts, but…His provisions for me only seemed like mirages in the desert.

HOPE: Once again, the reason we can be gut-honest with our gut-view of God is that the Divine is passionate about transformation and capable of reconciling our gut-view of God, full of its distortions and disappointments, with God’s true character. God, in His great compassion, is doing that for me. He’s digging a deep well of hope in me, hope not in the fact that God is a good God if he provides a good man, but that He is good to His core. And, the more I take my doubts to Jesus and ask to see his scars the more and more my gut-view of God gets healed.

SCRIPTURE: Read Psalm 145, written by David who also wrote Psalm 40. Note how David shares a whole gamut of emotions in those two Psalms. How does David describe God in Psalm 145. How does his descriptions of God line-up with or contrast to the god-of your gut? Also read one of the baptism accounts and the Exodus scripture mentioned above. What words or images stand out to you?

LENTEN ASHES FOR YOU: Sometimes our view of God gets distorted by religion or even our church experience. Watch this short video clip about a guy named Richard Ellis. What was his god-of-his gut growing up? What changed?

INVITE OTHERS INTO IT: Pray each day for God to give you sacred encounters, conversations with close friends and perhaps strangers that give you insight into your gut view of God along with God’s true character. Meet for coffee or go on a walk with a friend this week to share your descriptions of your soul and how you perceive God at the moment.