izzle's

So I walked into this coffee shop the other day and the gal behind this counter was wearing a t-shirt that had a picture of Jesus' face on it and it said "fo' shizzle, Jesus is fo' rizzle" Along the same lines I've seen shirts and bumper stickers with things like "Jesus is my homeboy" or "Jesus saves after every level" (with a little nintendo controller. Jesus bobbleheads on dashboards anyone? I believe God has a sense of humor and these type of things have their place in showing Jesus to the world. Fo' shizzle, God is relationalizzle and personalizzle with each individual and you better believe that's an important message. And of course someone being as personal with me as God is, I would expect it to be someone I can laugh (as well as cry) with.
But at the same time, stuff like this only paints half of a picture. Yeah God will laugh with you and as a follower of Christ I know I need to be careful that I don't neglect the other half of who God is. God is holy folks. Which is really nice to know when I step back and think about it. I'm not so sure I want my eternal life in the care of a clown. God is full of power and wrath. There's a song that cuts me open each time I hear it (it's best at loud volumes) and the chorus says "The earth shakes, trembles and quakes and the mountains shook out of fear, He made darkness His covering, the bursting rain clouds of the sky, and from the brightness of His radiant face, hailstones and bolts of light, the Lord thunders, the Lord thunders."
We trust Him because He loves and stoops down to us, but we worship Him because He is powerful and holy. They go hand in hand in a perfect balance that we can only marvel at and give praise to God for being who He is.