Is your God big enough?

You may have noticed that I don't spend a lot of time in this column talking about religion and views of God, but here is an exception. A lot of men I talk to are still hanging onto a 7th grade Sunday school view of God. They picture God as a puppet in the sky directing all of us here on earth, or a gray bearded old man who is keeping score of everything they do--"and right now he's pretty angry at me."

I would encourage you to think much broader about God and his place in your life. This is particularly important if you were raised in a fundamentalist church, as I was. There are some excellent books and web articles on this. My favorite is Process Theology by Alfred North Whitehead, although it may be hard to find in the library.

If you can think of God as an active force in your life, a force you can commune with and receive sustenance from, a force that literally permeates everything in the universe, it may be easier for you to have a strong spiritual life.