‘God is Nice, and He Likes Me’

I first read Adrian Plass’ book The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass aged 37¾ in 1987, and I loved it. The humour was wicked in the best sense of the word, and the implied criticism of a certain segment of British evangelicalism was very applicable to some aspects of the religious subculture I was inhabiting at the time.

But one phrase from the book went further. It not only made me laugh; it also changed my life. It was the phrase that appears on the lips of one of the occasional characters in the book, Father John: “God is nice and he likes me.”

At the time I had no difficulty saying that God loved me, but I was surprised at how hard I found it to say ‘God likes me,’ and to believe it with my whole heart. Growing up, I always struggled with a poor self-image; I found it hard to see myself as a lovable and capable person, and there was so much about myself that I didn’t like, I found it hard to believe that God would enjoy my company. I couldn’t square it with my theology of sin and the wrath of God, and I couldn’t square it with my own emotions.

But I sat with Adrian’s words, I read his other books and meditated on them, and over the years, things changed. A decade later, I heard a friend say, “I want to tell you about a God who loves you more than you can possibly imagine, and created you for the pleasure of knowing you.” My ears pricked up at that. God created you for the pleasure of knowing you! Wow! That changes things—a lot! The lesson I’d learned from Adrian was being reinforced.

‘God is nice.’ That sounds trite, but the triteness contains a vital truth. So many people seem to believe in a god who behaves badly. Their god commands his armies to wipe out mothers and small children. He draws up a list of impossible demands, and then sentences people to spend an eternity in torment paying for the misdeeds they’ve committed in a few short years on earth. He sees people as righteous ‘in Jesus’, but it’s actually a sort of cosmic make-believe; it’s like they put on Jesus as a suit of shiny clothes, and then God won’t notice that they’re in serious need of a spiritual bath under those clothes. He seems to have forgotten that when he first made humans in his image, he saw them as ‘very good.’

To say ‘God is nice’ is to say, ‘God is a God I would like to spend time with.’ Not because I feel I should, but because I want to. God enjoys my company. God says, ‘I’m proud of you.’ God is like the most loving and gentle and kind and good human beings I’ve known, only more so.

‘…and he likes me.’ “What? Doesn’t he know I’m a sinner?” Of course he does, just like I know that my own children aren’t perfect. But that imperfection isn’t the basic truth I feel about them. The basic truth is ‘You’re my daughter/son, and I love you.’ I like it when my kids come round. I like it when they take time to talk with me. I like it when the whole family gathers for a meal. Why? Because I like them.

Could a good and beautiful and generous God feel any less?

So thank you to Adrian Plass. ‘God is nice and he likes me.’ That phrase changed my life. Maybe it can change yours too.