Your God is Too Small

“I walk in a space of gratitude.” Jurnee Smollet-Bell

I read J.B. Phillips' Your God Is Too Small as a teenager so I remember little or nothing about it.  Just the title, though, still gives me pause.  No matter how big you think God is, S/He is much bigger than that. I use S/He just to make the point that She is not He and He is not She. God, as far as I can figure, is not a human being and therefore isn’t of either human gender.  Then what is S/He?  Who knows?

Pantheists believe that God is no more than “everything that was, is and is to come”. Then to a pantheist God is not a person, but an accumulation of more things than be counted(think atoms and galaxies).  Astronomers tell us that our known universe contains billions upon billions of galaxies each of which contain millions and billions of stars. But my dad once said to me, “Even if we could send a man or a probe to the farthest reach of the universe, its very edge, at a distance that can’t be comprehended, then what would be beyond that?” But since God, we believe, created everything that is from nothing, then doesn’t S/He have to be bigger than that? From the creation account in Genesis 1 and 2 we see that God created everything. So then God pre-existed “His” creation and is bigger than that.

For eons humans and organizations have struggled with a name for God. To make the point that “God” can’t be contained with a name, “S/He” has been called thousands of things.  Alcoholics Anonymous, a secular organization, struggles with this and refers to God as “your Higher Power” (name “Him” whatever helps you). Eastern religions, instead of referring to the Christian “Trinity”, refer to the “Higher Power” as “the God of 10,000 things.” The native tribes who still practice their native religions tend to refer to the Christian God as “The Great Spirit”. Moses struggled with what to say to the Pharaoh as to Who sent Him and God said, “Tell him that ‘I Am’ sent you.”  Therefore, God Himself said “Just tell old Pharaoh that ‘I exist’!”

Biblical names for God include YHWH (Yahweh), Elohim, Jehovah and dozens of other names. Modern Jews sometimes refer to God as “the Name” or “G-d” to keep from spelling out a name that is too small. Taoism refers to this “Higher Power” as the Tao (pronounced dow). But this “religion” says that if you can name “the Tao” then it’s not “the Tao”. This “Entity” can’t be named or contained. In the Jewish creation story God says, “Let Us make man in ‘Our’ image.”  Even God struggled with what to call Himself so S/He just said “Our”.

Several years ago, to use a name larger than “God”, I adopted the Lakota Sioux name of Wakan Tanka. My prayers included an invocation to Wakan Tanka. However, recently I learned that the most famous of all of the Sioux, Sitting Bull, suggested that Wakan Tanka was the exclusive property of the Lakota Sioux and that other tribes shouldn’t use it. Then so much for that name! That God is very small.

So what does any of this matter to you? It should matter everything to you. When you bow your head in prayer, you need to be invoking the Presence of Something that is bigger than you. Otherwise, why bother to pray? If, “God” works for you then by all means pray to God. If your “God” is bigger than that, then you’re back to the problem I’m referencing. Even with its limitations, I still gravitate to Wakan Tanka, who is at least as big as the Universe, and that’s big enough for me.  I don’t think it’s all that important what you call “God” as long as you call this “Higher Power”, this “Great Mystery” something that is big enough to take care of you and those that you love.

There is a three year old boy in my life who, until recently, referred to himself as “here my am.” So I offer up  “Here My Am”  to be as good as any name for G-d and better than most. “Dear, Here My Am... Please hear my prayer today. In Your name I pray. Amen.”