Dennis Green, former head coach of the Arizona Cardinals NFL team, had an infamous post-game press conference nearly 20 years ago after a loss to the Chicago Bears. Frustrated, he declared, “The Bears are who we thought they were!” His point was that the Bears had not surprised them at all—the Cardinals had seen the film, knew what to expect, and yet failed to respond to what was plainly in front of them.
That moment has always made me think about a more important question, one that each of us has to wrestle with, whether we engage it or ignore it: Who is God?
Is He a distant creator, detached from our lives? A mythological construct that doesn’t exist at all? A purely subjective idea that changes from person to person? Or is He only partially revealed in a verse or two of Scripture, never truly knowable in any meaningful way?
I came to faith over 25 years ago, but before that I often fluctuated between believing God didn’t exist and sensing that He must be far more personal than my non-practicing Catholic upbringing had suggested. When friends introduced me to Jesus, I began reading the Bible for myself. What I discovered was that the God of Scripture was far more complex, vast, and glorious than anything I had previously imagined. He cannot be reduced to a single definition or confined to a single attribute.
I wish I could say the journey since then has been easy. It hasn’t. My family and I have walked through significant suffering—physical and mental health struggles, and ultimately the devastating loss of our daughter Sarah in 2023 at the age of 18 after her battle with a rare cancer. Throughout her illness, she maintained a remarkable spirit, and her courage helped us endure those months with strength we did not have on our own. Still, the grief that followed has been deep and all-consuming, touching every part of life—physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.
In that season, I often returned to Scripture—passages that speak of God working all things for good, or His promise of protection and care. I also saw, repeatedly, the truth that God is good. But the tension remained: how do those promises fit with the pain we actually experience?
That question led me to read authors like A.W. Tozer (The Attributes of God) and J.I. Packer (Knowing God). Their insights were helpful, but I still felt something was missing—not because they were wrong, but because each focused on particular aspects of God rather than the full weight of His revealed character in Scripture. So I began to trace the Bible as a whole, looking for how God describes Himself.
What I have come to see is this: God is who He says He is. He is trustworthy in the darkest valleys, even in the valley of the shadow of death and in seasons of doubt. He is deeper, more loving, and more good than we are able to fully comprehend or express. My goal is to understand and describe, as best I can, the one true God of Scripture—whose nature is not diminished by suffering but who works through all things for good, and whose purposes for us exceed anything we could ask or imagine.
And like Denny Green’s frustration revealed, the real issue is not whether the truth has been presented, but whether we respond to what is actually true rather than ignore it or replace it with something more comfortable.
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