Owning the Mystery: Living the Promise of the Trinity

Holy Father, Holy Son, Holy Spirit, Three we name you;
while in essence only one, undivided God we claim you,
then, adoring, bend the knee, while we own the mystery.

—Holy God, We Praise Your Name, verse 4

In many Christian congregations around the world, this coming Sunday will be celebrated as Trinity Sunday. It’s the day special emphasis is placed on the Christian doctrine of God who relates to us in three distinct “persons”—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In effect, it’s the exclamation point at the end of the story we began to tell with Jesus’ birth. As Ignace Franz acknowledges in the last line of his 18th-century hymn, the Trinity is a mystery we need to “own” as believers. Literally thousands of pages of theology have tried to explain how the Trinity works—so one thousand-word blog post isn’t going to add anything to that! Instead, let’s look at the relationship this teaching reveals and what it means for how we worship—and live.

Because we’re talking about one of the holiest of mysteries, I invite you to read the rest of this post a bit more slowly, and to take a few moments to meditate on these concepts—kind of like the interludes or Selah moments in the psalms.

It’s always been difficult for me to imagine life in a polytheistic world, making sure to offer the right words and gifts to the correct god at the correct time. I remember standing in a folk religion temple in Taiwan watching university students lined up to offer gifts and prayers to the god who they believed controlled their destiny as final exams approached. As Christians, we have an entirely different relationship with one God who, by grace alone, has initiated, promised, and guaranteed an entirely different relationship with us. But how? This is where the Trinity comes in. This one doctrine, as old as the Church itself, reveals the who, how, and where of our relationship with our one, transcendent, loving God.

Who? – Central to everything we believe is GOD, the Uncreated Creator, the Author of all life, the One who formed everything from geophysics to gerbera daisies, in whose image you and I are created, and by whose will you and I take our next breath. Scripture tells us this all-powerful God, who can manifest or manipulate anyone or anything, desires a relationship with… us.

This Source of all beauty, goodness, and love created you and me and literally everything else in beauty, goodness, and love. But something went horribly wrong when we humans were given freedom of choice and chose, repeatedly, to turn our backs on everything good, damaging the relationship with God beyond our repair. We couldn’t fix it—only God could.

How? – We believe God loved the world so much that he came among us in human form: Jesus. We believe Jesus was completely human and, simultaneously, completely God—God’s “Son” (another holy mystery). Jesus lived the life obedient humans should have lived, revealing the reality of God in his words and in his actions. In order to mend our relationship with God, however, Jesus died the death disobedient humans should have died. In other words, he paid the price for our disobedience in order that we could once again know the beauty, goodness, love, and peace of an intimate relationship with the One whose very image we bear. This relationship is so intimate that Jesus instructs us not only to call God “Father” but “our Father.”

Where? – We believe Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit, who first came to the disciples in Jerusalem after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, is God’s unending commitment to remain intimately present with us—guiding, nurturing, instructing, and admonishing—sustaining us as we navigate life in a still-fallen world—until Christ returns to reign eternally.

As awesome as the love of God the Father, as incredible as the saving work of God the Son, I believe the promised presence of God the Spirit is the often underrated but most astonishing part of our relationship with God. Think of it: in every time, in every place, in every moment, in every situation, no matter what joy or heartache we encounter, we are never alone. God, who in unending love has imagined us, created us, persevered with us, and redeemed us, also cherishes us and calls us his own. God has promised there is nothing we will ever experience without his presence, his protection, his provision, and his peace. Nothing will ever separate us from that promise.

So, that’s the relationship we who are believers celebrate, not only on June 15, 2025, but with every breath we take every moment of our lives. That almost unimaginable relationship is the mystery we “own” but also the reality we are privileged to share with people whose reality is a divided, despondent, and love-challenged world. Whenever you sing a trinitarian hymn or a stanza praising the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, hear God’s amazing promise to you. But also, hear in those words a personal challenge—to be a joyful, not anxious, child of God—living proof of God’s truly amazing love, and owning a mystery we may only comprehend one day but that shapes the very essence of who we are in all our todays and tomorrows.