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"What I mean is this. An ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers. He is trying to get in touch with God. But if he is a Christian he knows what is prompting him to pray is also God: God, so to speak, inside him. But he also knows...that Christ is standing beside him, helping him to pray, praying for him. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed toward that goal [of getting in touch with God]. So that whole threefold life of the three-personal Being is actually going on in that ordinary little bedroom where an ordinary man is saying his prayers."-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Ironically enough, I had made up my mind to write a post on the subject of an unbalanced Trinity only yesterday morning. Phil beat me to it. Ah, well. The subject interests me, so I'm going to rant on it anyway. :)

I am...to steal his word, absolutely baffled by Christians who tend to give all of their worship to God in the Person of Christ. Now, before I continue, let me say that I in no way intend to demean my Savior. Really, as Christians, how can we not be both awed and humbled by what He's done for us?

Okay, so we worship and exalt Christ for giving of Himself so we might live. Without Him, we'd be in serious trouble.

...but what about the other two persons of the Trinity? Whatever happened to the Father and Spirit in worship, and why are they so undermined when faced with the Son? I can't know for sure, but I can speculate. God in the form of the Father is essentially credited with the creation of all things, both seen and unseen. He is also the one to decide our fate when we go to meet Him at the end of our lives. Not quite small potatoes. I suppose many people find the Father intimidating or unapproachable for this reason. What happened to Him being, you know, a Father? It's no good to be afraid to talk to your father about something. You are still, after all, his child. He made you, and he loves you. If you make a mistake, certainly he's not going to be happy with you. But if you own up to it, and still try to be the best individual you can, he'll still be proud of you. He'll still love you.

Enter Christ as God the Son, often shown as loving, gentle, and understanding. (Interestingly, they often seem to forget the Jesus who was angry, just, and sometimes angst-ridden.) The must think, "What a perfect way to develop a relationship with God than to do so through One that is seemingly all love and light? And to think He died for us. How extravagantly awesome." That must explain the "OMGJESUSJESUSJESUSJESUS" bouncing worship and...moaning. Right? As I said before, I don't disagree with the weight of Christ's life. I do, however, think there is much more to being a Christian than that alone.

There's also God the Holy Spirit, but nobody really talks about Him. That's another thing--I can't grammatically say "him" about the Spirit. A spirit is a genderless noun, so I say "it". Even if it is God, or an actual Person, I still stick to "it". No one seems to understand what the Spirit is, anyway. Why worship something you don't understand? I mean, goodness, we can't even figure out what the right noun is! It's obviously far too complicated to think about. Besides, Jesus is so much cooler! YAY!

Um, no? The Father is before us, and Christ is beside us. The Holy Spirit is God manifest within ourselves! It's that drive to do what's right, and to grow closer to God. It's what inspires us and changes our lives from the inside out. If I hadn't seen this happen for myself, I probably would have never grasped that. When people humble themselves before God, and cry out to Him, the Spirit moves...and the effects of that are really something else.

What we have in the Trinity is a way of seeing God in all things. But when parts of that Trinity are treated as less important, less worthy of our worship, or even ignored, it breaks down. We lose so much understanding of what God can be and do.

Live and let live, I guess. But they're really, really missing out on something amazing.