God in 100 Words or Less

Byron Wade

When I am asked,
"Who/What is God?"
I no longer give long, complicated answers.
From what I have experienced
I have a simple answer;
God is Love.

The Creater God is Love
because God created
me,
you,
and all living things.
And it's all good.

The Redeeming God is Love
because God forgave our sins
through an ultimate act.

The Sustaining God is Love
for God watches,
guides,
strengthens,
and comforts us
all the time.

So you ask,
"Who/What is God?"
I would say --

God is Love.

Byron Wade is the Pastor of Davie Street Presbyterian Church in Raleigh, North Carolina and is currently the Vice-Moderator of the 218^th (2008) General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Visit his blog, Musings of the Vice-Moderator, here. 

---

Robb Harrell

"Hold me, Daddy," he cried as his body turned on itself and he began to vomit. I scooped him in my arms, "It's ok, baby. Daddy's here." The vomiting continued.  

I am thirteen again, hallucinating from a fever. My mother sits on the edge of my bed, pressing a cool cloth against my forehead. "It's ok, baby. Mama's here."

God is not a doctrinal abstraction or an old man in the sky. God is love. The love that holds a vomiting toddler, the love that assures the hallucinating teen. It is the love that says, "It's ok, baby, Mama's here."

Robb Harrell is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, serving as a mission re-developer at St. Luke Church (www.storyofgod.org) in the southern suburbs of Atlanta. He is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry in Christian Spirituality with an interest in monasticism and the post-modern church. He blogs at Lutherpunk.  

---

Adam Walker Cleaveland

The Triune God consists of God the Creator, God the Redeemer and God the Sustainer. Rather than existing in an hierarchical relationship together, the Triune God is a relational being - one which is dynamic and organic. The relationship is best described as that of a 3-person dance (perichoresis). The relationality between the members of the Triune God gives humanity one of its greatest clues to what being created in the imago dei truly means - to be in relationship with others and with God Godself.

Adam Walker Cleaveland is a 29-year-old Minister for Youth & Young Adults, blogger, networker, designer, husband, and progressive Presbymergent.  His blog is Pomomusings. 

---

Jim Burklo

Is that you, God, in a blade of grass breaking through a crack in the asphalt?  Is that you, God, holding the rest of the asphalt together?  Is that you, God, pushing sun-stained mountains up from the sea?  Is that you, God, in the rain wearing them down to beach sand again?  Is that you, God, in people young and old, whole and broken, lining up for bread and wine at the altar?  Is that you, God, in their wholeness and brokenness?  Is that you, God, in the bread and wine?  Is that you, God... in these questions?

Jim Burklo is an ordained United Church of Christ pastor and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Birdlike And Barnless: Meditations, Prayers, and Songs for Progressive Christians (2008) and Open Christianity: Home By Another Road (2000).  Jim's blog Musings can be found at The Center for Progressive Christianity (www.tcpc.org).

---