Shipwrecked. To those with eyes for the storm clouds.

Shipwrecked

To those with eyes for the storm clouds:

(Part 2 of “Gees Pastor’s Wife”)

Honestly the crux is this:  do we read the Bible as a rulebook to which we consider our understanding of what we read absolute Truth?  After all, the Holy Spirit teaches and guides us so He is deciphering the words on the page to my mind, right?  Don’t get me wrong.  I do believe the Holy Spirit teaches and guides us.  I would just like to point to the wrinkle that is created when both me and “the other guy” are both hearing different things from the same Holy Spirit.  Someone is WRONG Col. Sanders!  And it’s not the Holy Spirit.  Why did the ancient Jews learn scripture’s meaning by arguing it in Haverums?  It’s almost like no one had the ultimate understanding of Truth all by themselves.  I wonder if through community and conglomerate considering we will come upon a more vast understanding of Truth.  All the while we, ourselves, understand that we are ALL wrong about some things and hopefully right about others.

I facilitate groups of art doers (the term “artist” is sometimes connotative of something intimidating or pretentious for some reason).  I am an art doer that is lacking in formal training like many others.  I fake it a lot.  I will ask people sometimes to create an “impression” of a photo or a concept.  This has some to do with the lack of skill most of us have to create a “likeness”.  Besides the real thing already exists.  A likeness will never be as multifaceted as the real thing.  Somehow symbolizing the actual with other, easier to draw objects, brings a personal take on the actual.  It is this kind of creativity that, I believe, brings glory to The Creator.  We are acknowledging the imperfect, finite aspects of our understanding coming from a finite frame of reference.  However, these impressions become beautiful when put together. Since each impression varies in contrast to the next, they all hail a different aspect of beauty to the original object or concept.  Say we are trying to represent a sunset we could not possibly capture on canvas.  The original sunset remains great, mysterious and multi faceted in a way we could never completely capture.  However, maybe one person paints two hands intertwined as he was moved by the sunset for a personal feeling of not being alone.  Maybe another paints an eyeball reflecting some of the colors in the sunset from personal inspiration and another an unopened package at the mystery the sunset evokes.  Who is wrong (Col. Sanders)?

No one.  Everyone.

These are all just interpretations …parts of a whole.

Maybe this is GOOD news for a person shipwrecked from his “jot and tiddle” faith:  all we can ever hope to glean from The Holy Word of God is a version of it…an interpretation.  Maybe it was designed this way.

The cold water in the face is that this inability to grasp the complete and absolute version of these absolute truths makes it imperative to consider interpretations that differ from our own…. but lets save that expository for another time.  J

If you can’t tell, I am one who has been “shipwrecked” in her faith in the Bible.  It just a handful of years ago.  I guess I have always understood the interpretation factor, as I have always known that I did not have all the answers, nor did any other person.  I did know the Bible was not a rulebook but a “plum line”.  I guess I was so pacified by my own “what the Bible is saying to ME, personally” that I never realized that I have a responsibility:  This is  to consider other, very different, interpretations worthy of my own adopting and not just being “ok for someone else”.  I was left in a place of deep sadness and many tears.  Many of these new ideas about passages I had thought I understood came from people who read a lot more than me.  They had learned about the idioms and the social context the words were first written from.  I began to learn how different my perception is based on my culture and time.  Some of these passages include ideas about hell, homosexuality, what happens at “the end”…stuff like that.  Most of what I began to consider was really good news.  Most of it made more sence.  However, the fact that I couldn’t possibly get all of this from reading the Bible without seeking other historical sources was extremely discouraging to be honest.  I always believed the Bible was enough in conjunction with the Holy Spirit.  I had believed it was kinda blasphemous to say that it isn’t enough.  After I saw, I wondered what else I was missing and what 10 resources to read to find out what the heck the Bible was trying to say.  This is at the hull of my personal shipwreck.  Others have other reasons that have caused the same ripple effect:  being go sure and comforted by my small understanding of the written Word to a place of almost stupid looking uncomfortable “I don’t knows “ in its place.  Honestly, I have gone from being a bible study leader who would rather create her own study questions in the name of authenticity to someone who just shrugs her shoulders a lot.

Not pretty.

Seems like a fools trade: security for insecurity, safety and comfort for the unknown.  But how else will I ever get closer to knowing who He really is unless I trade?  Am I more passionate about what I have learned about God or finding out a little of whom he really is.

Honestly, I’m still a mess.  But here’s some good news:  We step into a more profound humility when ALL we know for sure is Jesus and him crucified for us.  We step into the passion for the mysteries of God when we consider deeper understanding about our expression of this simple truth.  It is through this humility that we have greater tolerance of other’s expressions as we

Listen first, dialogue second.

We have greater compassion as we encourage other Christians through their shipwreck.

The greatest news of all to me is that the Jesus that I have spent time worshipping, loving and communing with is STILL THE SAME GUY!!  ALLELUJAH!

If you can identify with any part of this narrative wreckage of your faith in the Bible, I hope you will be as sweetly encouraged as I was by something my Jesus lovin’ beer lovin’ rad little bearded hipster pastor friend told me: 

“. …This (the Bible) is a love letter.  You may not always understand but it was written to you.   So you read it and keep ON reading it because the person who wrote it, wrote it to you and He loves you.”  -Tripp Fuller