Citing God: An abandoned habit

The other day, I was listening to an Indian guy online talk about the Internet. Right in the middle of the conversation, he said something like, “I think God created the Internet so businesses could fail faster [and learn quicker].”

For some reason, that floored me. I literally paused the video, took off the headphones, and starting staring out my window, thinking.

(Photo: babasteve

Why? What caught my attention?

Well, it’s not because what he said was some brilliant, Internet insight. I paused my thought track because he said, “God created…”

Why can an Indian cite his god in the middle of a completely unrelated conversation? Or actually, I’m not as concerned with that. My real question is, why can’t Christians do it for their God?

As a Christian, when was the last time you mentioned God in an everyday conversation? I’m not talking about a conversation you have with your Christian friends or one that’s specifically related to religion or spirituality or Christianity or whatever. I’m talking about like the conversations about traffic jams and peanut butter sandwiches… stuff like that.

Maybe I’m just speaking for myself and my little corner of the Western world, but I think most of us have abandoned referencing God in our daily conversations.

  • If you’re like me, you’ve been turned off by all the pious, Christianese. What you’ve heard doesn’t appeal to you, even as a Christian.
  • If you’re like me, you skirt around mentioning God now because you don’t want to come off too pushy. Actions speak louder than words… or so someone said.
  • If you’re like me, you might even avoid mentioning God because – and this is scary – He’s not all that real to you. You believe in Him as a theory, but you don’t really think He’s sitting right next to you.

In any case, I’m wondering if we’ve gone too far to this other extreme. We’re hyper hesitant – uptight even – about bringing God into any conversation without express permission.

So just by way of introduction, here are three areas I’m trying to incorporate God into my casual conversations. Perhaps you could try it with me.

God’s creation

Like my Indian friend with his god, do you and I cite our God for His work in creating things? And remember: God’s involved in creating things that are outside the typical nature resort.

Examples of how to cite God’s creation:

  • “I not try to harm God’s creation whenever I can.”
  • “I’m glad God thought blogs were a good idea. Otherwise, I might not have connected with you.”

God’s providence

This is a topic for a whole other post, but in general I don’t think God directly intervenes much. Usually, I think He prefers to just plan ahead, arranging to give us what we need before we even need it. But because of that, I tend to take for granted all the little blessings I receive.

Examples of how to cite God’s providence:

  • “Thank God for vacuums, right?”
  • “I was able to get it on sale. Yeah, God’s cool like that.”

God’s presence

God’s everywhere. Simply acknowledging His presence and guidance is a great way to share how He works in our lives in real time.

Examples of how to cite God’s presence:

  • “So I was going to just forget about it and go home, but I figured God wouldn’t like that…”
  • “Let’s do this. God’s not a fan of fear.”

Overall, it’s not about pushing God down anyone’s throat. It’s about assuming He’s real and then talking and acting like it even when it’s unorthodox… or maybe seems too orthodox. :)

Serving Suggestions:

(1) Here’s a fun/terrifying game: count how many times you’re able to weasel God into your conversations today. In a way, I’m almost promoting outrageousness.

(2) What are some creative ways you’ve been able to off-handedly include God when you’re talking?