words, words, words

A day off is never quite complete and satisfying without a few hours surrounded by volumes of books. I enjoyed such a pleasure this afternoon at Border’s where I took only a few minutes to collect a mountain of reading materials and snuggle into a comfy chair.

My perusing took me through a few good books discussing God, religion, and forming words about these ideas. Do You Believe? Interviews on God and Religion spoke to several artists including Toni Morrison and Martin Scorsese. Author Antonio Monda asked them how they viewed religion, what or in what they believed, and how those perceptions shaped their art. The majority of the interviews I read (a fair sampling) denied any concrete belief if God though most admitted to having an understanding of a higher being. They were unable, however, to fully describe such a being or how its existence plays out in their lives. One said using words to capture God/the higher being limits such a deity from encompassing words such as omnipotent and omnipresent.

Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller and Phase B: Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamont also peeked my interest. Again, with only a small taste, I sensed a completely different approach to their search and understanding of the aforementioned topics. They told stories. Their books revealed real life events, and yet God was somehow present. Is it possible to so perceptively pick out the divine in a remembered story about the “total geek in school” or of the death of man’s best friend?

I find the paradox of understanding and explaining God to be such a profound statement of faith. Despite being some of the most brilliant minds, and certainly the most literary and articulate, interviewees of Mr. Monda’s book fail to find the words. And yet, maybe there is nothing there to fail at, for appreciating the essence of God and faith might not require or even be designed for words. It really leaves me speechless. Yes, in awe and wonder and complete fascination at the multitude of mysteries of God. But more profoundly, I somehow relate more to the relating, to the stories, to the life as describe in the latter books. If I were to think about it and be honest, theoretical or doctrinal statements can merely grasp that which we have experienced whether physically or spiritually. That is why Jesus came to earth. To make an abstract, unknowable being real, flesh, life. And in his walking, talking, weeping and celebrating, God knew and knows the experiences and feelings and thoughts, that like Him, are so indescribable. This is the faith part, believing in the God of flesh and divine, regardless of ability to express it with words.

My Fair Lady takes a woman from the street and gives her a new persona by “fixing” her words. Just at the climax, the transformed character Eliza bursts into song about words. “Words, words, words. I’m so sick of words….SHOW ME NOW!” In her plea to her lover, she asks simply to be shown all the emotion and feeling of love, joy, excitement, and anticipation that he only wants to sing to her. Her plea reminds me that I have a similar longing that can’t be ushered or answered by words but only in the living. So I praise God that I wake up to sun which SHOWS me his joy and life-giving ability. I eat apples which SHOWS me God will provide, and his purpose for the growth and well-being of all creation is ever present. I play soccer with Michael from Uganda which SHOWS me God has a plan for our lives, “a plan to prosper us and not harm us; to give hope and a future.”

Some have a way with words. All of us have a way with life and therefore a connection to God. I just pray I do justice to that connection of love in the words I use.