Learning to Talk About Infinite Goodness
Recently I’ve been wondering if one should ever “get over” a feeling of amazement at the simplest aspects of truth. After thinking about it for awhile, I’m convinced the answer is No—but that we do need to discover progressively better ways of voicing our appreciation for reality.
Consider: It would be tempting to feel condescension toward a man who is continually amazed that air travel “works,” or that it’s really “possible” to access the internet from home. Get over it, I’d be tempted to tell him, and start enjoying the benefits of technology.
We need to get beyond a mere Wow mentality in our enjoyment of Christ. This is not a disavowal of wonder, it’s an endeavor to seize on better words, to discover more nuanced feelings to offer God in response to his goodness.
It’s not that airplanes and connectivity aren’t wonderful. Rather, it’s that a childish level of appreciation does not remain appropriate. The first time I drank coffee, I was startled and pleased by the sensation of unusual getup. Now, years later, the extra dynamism supplied by caffeine + a delicious roast is hardly less wonderful—but my modes of enjoyment are more refined. Likewise, and here’s what I’m really getting at, the depth of our appreciation for God should not remain the same.
I am a child of God, and he loves me like a son—but if, after five years, all I can muster in response to this truth is “Wow,” I am doing a disservice to both myself and my Father.
The feeling I’m trying to articulate is that we need to get beyond a mere Wow mentality in our enjoyment of Christ. This is not a disavowal of wonder, it’s an endeavor to seize on better words, to discover more nuanced feelings to offer God in response to his goodness. And these verbal expressions should point back to a life that has become spiritually aware, well-seasoned, mature. A greater depth of praise, I think, is the natural result of fully savored Christian spirituality.
God’s excellence is something that calls to be explored aggressively, wrestled with mentally, embraced trustingly, and intuitively lived out.
When I first met my wife, she was flattered if I smiled intently in her direction. Now, four years later, I’m finding I need to phrase my compliments more carefully. And it makes sense. After four years of enlightening Lindsay-experience, my accolades have progressed accordingly. God-experience, I’m convinced, should be similar.
Why does any of this matter?
My tendency, sometimes, is to gloss over the inexpressible beauty of God’s person and actions with a childish How cool. Is God astonishing? Yes—beyond words, in fact. But paradoxically, our thanks to God often takes verbal form. And there, I think, is where we often reveal our silliness.
When I first encounter the goodness of Christ, Wow! is a perfectly fitting response. But decades later, if Wow still conveys the sum total of my spiritual experience, my theology is revealing its cracks. I should have seen more by now! I should have tasted more by now! Fundamentally, I should know God better by now! And if I have done these things, I should learn to voice them—or my original sense of wonder may atrophy. As Paul, the theologian wrote:
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways (I Corinthians 13:11, The Bible).
Perhaps I’m off the mark here. But I suspect that our shallow rhetoric about God often reveals our superficial understanding of his greatness. And if our understanding is in fact deeper, we are jeopardizing it by short-selling it with our language. Our own words affect us.
God’s excellence is something that calls to be explored aggressively, wrestled with mentally, embraced trustingly, and intuitively lived out. After a few years, an uninterrupted succession of mere Wows may reveal that the depth of our relationship with Christ is suspect.
I can almost see God showing up and questioning me some day…
“ARIEL.”
“Yes?”
“SO—AM I COOL?”
“Well…yes, God.”
“WOULD YOU LIKE TO ELABORATE?”
There would be no question of my wanting to. The question would be: Would I have the words? And would I have the thoughts to underpin them? Maybe so…if my knowledge of God today transcends the level of juvenile Wow.
4 comments:
Good post.
I agree with your primary argument, namely that relational intimacy and understanding of God ought to grow over time; and certainly words can be indicative, to a certain degree, of how much progression there has been.
But really, not everyone is good with words--I'm in a public speaking club; we had a meeting today and one of the members had a terrible time trying to communicate a simple concept; the person's use of words bordered on incoherency. Unfortunately (lamentably, actually) the ability to articulate with power and lucidity is something that belongs to few; and for many a simple "wow" is all feeble lips can muster (though their heart beats strong and is close to their savior).
But I suspect that our shallow rhetoric about God often reveals our superficial understanding of his greatness.
To some degree our understanding of God's greatness will always be superficial, and those with shallow rhetoric may not have shallow minds or weak relationships.
Unfortunately (lamentably, actually) the ability to articulate with power and lucidity is something that belongs to few; and for many a simple "wow" is all feeble lips can muster...
I think that's a necessary counter-balance to what I said, Tim. Good point. I'd maintain, though, that time spent with Jesus will give us an understanding of God that transcends "how cool." Whether or not that deepening appreciation for God's goodness finds verbal expression is another question.
As a seminarian, I have found that many of my fellow compatriots on this journey have yet to develop that deeper sense of a true relationship with Christ. At times, I myself feel as if my relationship does not even reach the level of "wow." Many would argue that this means my relationship with Christ is immature and that my faith borders on the infantile. Yet, I have spent more time thinking, dissecting and reordering what I think regarding God than I have on any other subject. Maybe that's why I do not reach the level of even "wow" in my relationship with God--I have spent too much time thinking and not enough time experiencing.
Great post, Ariel.
Unfortunately (lamentably, actually) the ability to articulate with power and lucidity is something that belongs to few; and for many a simple "wow" is all feeble lips can muster...
This got me to thinking as well. My son, Gavin, is in the middle of learning to speak, and my wife made the comment one day that it must be frustrating to not be able to communicate what you want to say. It lead to an interesting discussion and in the end, we decided it was a bit of a paradox. Gavin has a desire to speak, and there are moments where it is obvious that he wants to communicate something to us but cannot. But at other times, until we have taught him how to communicate something, or until he gets the notion that it can be communicated, he (seems to) show no visible interest or frustration in his inability. Clearly, we can't see inside his mind, but if I switch to thinking about it from my point of view I can remember times in my life (some fairly recently) where I experienced feelings that at the time I did not feel I could adequately put into words. It's interesting to me, because there were moments when I felt both at peace and frustrated with my inability. What I think I'm beginning to see is that there is not an end to the process we begin as children, of quantifying the world and our experiences in it, and that sometimes, our limited mental vocabulary limits our ability to be aware. As we are able to express more, we sense more, and as we sense, we come to terms with expressing it. I don't think the two can be separated, and perhaps that's one of the danger of language. By naming a thing, we sometimes believe that we have mastered it and can now isolate it.
I realize now, reading back through this, that I have illustrated my point quite well. My own level of articulation* on this subject - describing how I feel about feeling about something that I cannot quite say how I feel about - is somewhere in the middle of this process, and basically, not yet ready for expression.
* Literally, to divide into distinct but cooperating parts
Post a Comment