The God of Mathematical Law
There’s a meme going around that I’ve seen that says this…
“Mathematical law is the only true God.”
Let’s see, where do I start?…
I like smart people. I’m so glad there are people way smarter than me doing things that solve complicated problems for humanity. So, in this regard, I totally get it and can get behind God-as-mathematical-law. A God that’s logical. That figures things out and shows up in rational ways.
I particularly like this God when I’m in a comfortable place. I don’t need a God of faith, I just need a God who solves problems (or, even better, who helps ME solve problems). Everything is figure-out-able, so get to work, God. And show us your answer key so we can take it from there. In this mindset, a perfectly suitable God is math and science.
But when I’m in a more vulnerable place, this God will not do. In fact, this modern rationalistic God can just as easily convict me as does the God of wrath from yesteryear.
When I get a bad diagnosis and I learn that the cells are multiplying and growing…
This God of mathematical law is a tyrant.
When I learn that my spouse of twenty years that I’ve been nothing but faithful to and have sacrificed so much for has betrayed me and lived a separate life with their yoga instructor…
This God of mathematical law is not enough.
(Neither of these cases are (currently) true for me, dear reader, so please don’t be concerned.)
I say an emphatic YES on medical advances and building better bridges. In my day-to-day life, I want to know more about just about everything.
But when life has me in an impossible place, it does me no good to summon a God that helps me figure things out. To know WHY the cells are mutating. To know WHY she lived that life with that other person.
In these cases, I don’t need a statistician, I need a savior. I need a God of promise.
I need God to extract my trust in the laws of reason and logic so that I can stop convicting myself and the world based on them.
(Hmmmm… Maybe this is what suffering does.)
I don’t need God to show me how the sausage is made in every historical event or in every aspect of life.
I need a God to speak something new to me outside of the laws of reason and logic.
I need a promise that overrules the case that reason and logic has made against me and the world.
I need a God that breathes new life into my veins when my soul has been murdered by my own nefarious ways and/or this cruel world.
I don’t need a God of mathematical law.
I need a God of promise and resurrection.
Amen.