“We find it hard to love imperfect things so we imagine God is just as small as we are.”
-Father Richard Rohr-

Sadly this is a hard truth for me. Why is it so? Why is it so hard to love imperfect things even when I’m all too aware of my own imperfections? Why is it so much easier to see the splinter in the eyes of another, but overlook the giant wooden beam in our own eye?

I desire so much to be able to look at people and just love them first, no judgement. I want my heart to accept people where they are at immediately and be able to look straight past any imperfections I might initially perceive. After all, the imperfections my eyes see – or rather my imperfect mind and heart choose to see – are constructed according to my viewpoint of this crazy little life of mine. Certainly, my viewpoint is quite imperfect so why do I allow that to be my standard?

More rattling still, was the second half of the quote – “…so we imagine God is just as small as we are.” We are imperfect so we minimize God’s omnipotence and make him small like us. Two realities strike me about this. First, if we minimize God, we begin to diminish his power. No, God isn’t made less powerful by us, but a large portion of the relationship with Christ is faith. We begin to see His power in motion as we increase our faith. Choosing to see Him as small does not serve us or anyone else. Second, we have much less control and power than we like to think we do, but yet we continue to try and control all situations even in our smallness.

Allow God to be God. Allow Him to be the BIG God that He is and believe in His ability to draw people in. He does change hearts. He changes them every second of every day. In fact, He’s changing yours right now…