Our God is an "Awesome" God

We sing, “Our God is an Awesome God,” with joy and enthusiasm, but the other day, I started really thinking about our awesome God.

Do you realize that the word “awesome” is less like the surfer definition of “cool” and more like standing in front of a volcano that just release it pyroclastic cloud, “oh God?”  It has within it the notion of fear and terror at the sheer power of what is being viewed.

I remember the first Indian Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark. (Spoiler alert for those too young to have seen it yet, thinking it’s an OLD movie)  When they open the ark and people’s heads explode, and faces melt and bodies evaporate; that is the normal response to awe.

When President Bush talked about the gulf war and the campaign of shock and awe; that wasn’t to make the enemy think we were cool.  It was to scare the crap out of them.

Awe strikes fear in us and brings us to our knees.  It lays us prostrate on the floor, faces buried so deep, we can barely breathe.  From awe, we get awful; full of awe.

Our God is an awesome God.  I believe that from the depth of my being.  And sometimes, he scares the shit out of me.  Why do you think I keep busy all the time?  Because I’m afraid of what He is going to say.

Fortunately, He is not just awesome.  He is kind, gentle and loving.  Without His breadth of character, he would consume us with his holiness, jealousy and wrath.  But, he loves us, oh, how he loves us.  With the totality of His love being poured out on us, His awesome power is diffused in its flow, and his grace transforms his wrath to tender mercy.

So, the next time you sing that song, remember; that which is awesome about God should make us truly appreciate his unfailing love.