Sometime back—never mind how long ago—I said casually to a young woman, “The surest description of God is that of Father.” She recoiled in horror. Fear and grief passed across her face. Later I learned her father had been a man filled with violence and abuse toward to his daughters. Father meant betrayal, brutality and perversion. Her experience and definition kept her from knowing the True Father: his tender care, his understanding and deep love. Yet who could blame her?
Another occasion I watched a boy imitate the father he loved. A poor imitation it was. Filled with blustering pride, the man-child bossed and ordered others about. He thought he was doing what fathers did—commanding, directing and leading. To him, Father meant authority and power to lead. He was a child playing the backyard version of war, brimming over with glory and bluster.
What if our definitions keep us from seeing the truth? What if our twisted experience has taught us the opposite of the deep meanings whispered by the Spirit? Deliver us from the things we think we know, because certainty is the enemy of discovery. We could embrace a deception, or in fear we could run away from the truth. God save us from the words we think we know. What if they keep us from the truth? Since those encounters I’ve wondered time and again how many words I have misunderstood, simply because I have one meaning planted firmly in my head, rooted in my heart.
Since those experiences I have kept a list of Bible words—words filled with promise, joy, deliverance and hope—yet also capable of frightening me to the core, or leading me completely astray. My list of wonderful-yet-dangerous words? Here is but a sample of the words I think I know:
Family
Sister
Brother
Love
Church
Community
Mission
Calling
I’ve determined never to reject these words, because the Spirit has spoken them. I will not run from them. I’ve also determined to hold them loosely in order that I might return to them again and again, and be instructed by their multi-faceted wisdom.
The revealed wisdom of God sends us this sure warning: We know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears … For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
