My preschool class used to pray before our daily snack of graham crackers and lemonade: “God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for our food.”
On Friday, gunmen in Paris shouted, “Allahu Akbar,” which means God is greatest, as they attacked French civilians.
How can such similar words precede two vastly different acts — one of thanksgiving, one of death?
The attacks in Paris are not an issue of different religions. Christians have taken millions of lives in the name of God and Islam in no way condones terrorism. While Christians speak strongly about surrendering to God at the foot of the cross, the word Islam, by definition, means surrender or submission to God. We are one and the same, all seeking to understand the creator of our messy world.
This isn’t an issue of different religions; it’s an issue of where and how we see God. Blind, fearful and uncertain, human history has continually painted God into scenes of genocide, rape, racial domination and cultural hatred. Over and over again, we’ve forced God into portraits of pooled blood and mass murder. But God isn’t in any of those images — God never was.
In her book “Here if You Need Me,” Kate Braestrup, a chaplain to the Maine Warden Service, writes,“God does not spill milk. God did not bash the truck into your father’s car. Nowhere in scripture does it say, ‘God is car accident’ or ‘God is death.’ God is justice and kindness, mercy, and always — always — love. So if you want to know where God is in this or in anything, look for love.”
The eight attackers in Paris found God in their thirst for power, in their driving desire to control the fate of the world. My three-year-old self found God in the breaking of bread and the sharing of juice. Each of us believed the words, “God is great,” but we saw those words play out in astronomically different ways.
Perhaps when we seek great power, we lose sight of great grace. There seems to be this struggle in all of us — power versus grace. Yes, some struggle more than others and some act on more colossal levels, but we all struggle. We want power and control while we so desperately need grace and love; the two have always wrestled inside of us, and I think they always will.
So the question becomes: To which God will we surrender? A God of lordship or a God of love? God is God, but how and if we choose to see him is our choice.
Peyton’s column runs biweekly Wednesdays. She can be reached at p.williams@cavalierdaily.com.
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