Taking the Air, for Example

I could write a post about air, and no one would bat an eyelid. I could say things like, yesterday, while I was breathing in, and not get one question about it. I could mention I'd noticed it, in the sense that I wasn't suffocating, that various birds and lines of washing and trees were behaving in the ways you might expect due to the presence of air. I might even tell you my handful of lessons back in my school days gave me a rudimentary awareness that it was a thing, but then I'd also have to point to kite-flying afternoons before those lessons, as well as to… well, you get the drift.

But if I wrote a post about God. What then?

I imagine questions will start to be asked by the reader, even at the first mention. A list of them. Things like:

a/theist? church-goer? radical charismatic? monastic silent-type?

baptist? methodist? apologist? backslider?

for us? against us? with us? us?

I think all my work is toying with this dichotomy. You can grow up in and around all kinds of awareness and perspective around air, without having to classify or categorise your approach, appease your friends, or mitigate potential fall out.

But God?

And a post that only went that far would be saying something. But let me go further. IF God is actually… Well, I mean, if God actually IS, then — well, before I end the sentence, hold the thought. Make it a thought experiment, if you like. If God actually WERE to be — God (real, relevant, present, ultimate, and before all things etc) then those questions about denomination and current 'state of play' in terms of our classifications and categories would be as ridiculous as asking someone who says "it's a bit chilly" is trying to make a claim about the nature, and if so what the claim is and where is it sourced.

Yes, If God actually IS, then … well, so much.

But now, let's shift that around. And for a moment let's face the people who would make the categories and classification relevant to God's reality in their lives. Those questioners who need to know where someone's coming from before they're accepted. Counted. Listened to. Favoured.

You see, it's not like the Flat Earth Society. (I am characterising them. I know nothing about the Flat Earth Society. In fact, that's hardly fair, so let's talk about the Closed Sky Society (who we might imagine think things are ultimately a bit like the Truman Show, and if you sail too far in your rocket ship you're likely to make a dent).

It's not like them. They have to be defensive because people have things to point to and reasons to laugh. They probably can't come up with a ton of evidence of their own — and probably make far too much reference to the Truman Show to back up their theories. (Like some people do with Aslan. Or Gandalf.)

No, if you think, or even say you know it to be true that God IS — then where's the need for defence. You'll know you're on a journey, you don't know it all yet (through a glass darkly...) and so are other people, whatever they're claiming to know for certain.

And the fact that you can point to affiliations that qualify you for your point of view don't mean quite so much, if God IS. Badges, credentials, networks. Yeah — not a thing, if God IS.

Interesting thought isn't it. I mean, I could tell you I'm a staunch Anglican. Or a former contemplation group member. But you wouldn't know if I was on my way out of the door or on my way back in, or tearing down doors, or building new ones. None of those things would make me more right, or less right.

Let's say God IS. And that Jesus (God, let's say) asks us to be witnesses. To talk about the impact. To express what it means to us. Not to hawk around a CV of prestigious credentials as if that adds pizzazz to our witness statement.

I can't help recalling Matthew 7. And I'm not saying that to scare or criticise, or because I know answers.

What does it mean to know God? And to witness to that in my life.

I'm asking myself.

Who was I, all along?

Who have I been along the way?

Who am I now.

And what does it matter.

And how was I breathing before anyone told me about air?