At church this morning, the pastor's sermon was about God being a God
of relationship. The pastor said that God was sufficient in himself,
but God's love overflowed, as God created human beings to have a loving
relationship with them. The pastor also said that many are apprehensive
about entering into a relationship with God because they fear losing
their own individuality. But the pastor went on to affirm that God is
okay with our individuality----that God wants to use us to help others,
with our strengths and weaknesses.
Why
would people be afraid to enter into a relationship with a God who
unconditionally loves them? "Because they want to do anything they
want, without being accountable to a higher power," Christians may
respond. But if God's love is truly unconditional, that would
mean that God loves people even if they do what they want, right? Why
wouldn't anyone want to be in a relationship with that kind of God? I
think that one reason that some might not want to be in a relationship
with God is that they don't really think that God's love is
unconditional. Moreover, my impression is that the monotheistic
religions do not consistently present God's love as unconditional.