I don’t know if you guys are the same as me, but whenever I walk into an environment I generally want to know who is in charge. When I go into a place like Disney World, I’m amazed at the vision that it took to create a place like that. It makes me curious to get inside the mind of Walt Disney. Even though he passed away a long time ago, I pay attention when I see a quote from him because he was obviously a brilliant man. If I hear about a wonderful organization, I’m immediately intrigued by the owner or CEO. I want to know why they created that organization and how it got to be so good.

The opposite is also true. If I stay in a hotel or eat in a restaurant that isn’t up to par, I want to know who is in charge of this dump. What’s wrong with the person or group of people that allowed their business to be run so poorly? Do they just not care? Are they incompetent? These are the types of questions that run through my mind because great customer service sticks out like a sore thumb and bad customer service sticks out like a sore thumb.

I’ve thought the same way about the world at large before. This type of thinking has actually driven a significant portion of my spiritual pursuits. I’ll look at a beautiful starry night and wonder about the mind that must be behind that beauty. I’ll look at the ocean and wonder about the kind of hand that could create something so vast and majestic. That being said, I’d be lying if I told you that it didn’t work the other way as well. 9/11 happens and many people, including myself, wonder why God didn’t prevent that. I’ll learn about something like the holocaust and it’s hard to imagine how a good God could allow something like that to take place. Perhaps many of us have been tempted to ask at times, “Who is in charge?”

Who is in charge? Most of us probably believe that someone is in charge but what is he like? Is he really good? Is he really loving? Many of our experiences have most likely communicated to us that the one in charge doesn’t care a whole lot. He’s got way too much universe to run to be concerned about your little bitty problems. The theologian A.W. Tozer said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” The level of our spirituality rests on what we actually believe God to be like. If we believe that a jerk is on the throne of the universe, then we had better protect ourselves because we have no divine support coming our way. If a nice God without a lot of power is seated on the throne, we can feel comforted by his love but we can’t have any confidence that he is able to help us.

What comes to your mind when you think about God? Really. Does he seem loving? Disinterested? Non-existent? Judgmental? Powerful? Incompetent? Caring? Where do these thoughts come from? What’s the truth?

I’ll respond with what I believe in my next post.