do this, do that...but not that

i recently showcased my penchant for being on top of the most recent trends by reading william p. young's book "the shack". yes, i know. it came out well over a year ago and the buzz has all but died on it. that's why i was being sarcastic.

while it is not the most well-written book, it does make some great points about religion, our relationship with our creator, faith, and a whole host of other issues. kudos to william young for making his portrayal of god in the novel an african-american woman and the holy spirit an asian. i've never been able to relate to the traditional pictures of god or jesus. you know, like these:

while there is nothing inherently wrong with these images, it bothers me that these are the default images. the image of god shows an angry one, while the image of jesus shows someone who is emotionless and staring off in space. apathetic. these are not qualities i admire. shouldn't our creator be more commonly displayed as loving, caring, empathetic, relational, etc? these images show distance. not to mention both are portrayed as white dudes. that's likely not accurate.

one of the bigger things i took from "the shack" was on the topic of ritual. i know for most of my life, christianity has been displayed as mainly that. following ritual. read your bible, pray (on your own and before & after meals), go to church weekly, etc. you probably know the drill. while, at points, this was driven home as a way to develop a relationship with god, jesus & the holy spirit, it never worked for me. as a result, i was constantly stuck in this rut of never feeling like i had a relationship with "the trinity" (a term i struggle with since it never appears in the bible), so i always thought i was a bad christian.

there's a point in the book where mack, the main character, is sitting & eating dinner with god, jesus & the holy spirit (try wrapping your brain around that one). instead of doing the normal devotions at the end of the meal, they go off and do some gardening as a way of developing relationship. i found that incredible. that reality that we find god in everything. not only creation, but our relationships with others, the blessings we have (both tangible and intangible), those moments of peace in the midst of a crazy day.

on a deeper level, this pointed to the grace god gives. that relationship with god does not have to be done in any specific way. what works for me and my personality type may not work for you and yours. that's the amazing thing. god relates to all personality types, no matter how you function.

Proverbs of Ashes

I often pick up this book around the same time every year - Lent. I love it because it encourages a moral imagination or creativity that we too often don't explore or are afraid to explore. It also examines the liturgical themes that come about at this time of year and moves through them to a search of what truly can save us.

I appreciate many parts of this book because of the willingness to consider a new framework, a new way of looking at potentially damaging and harmful theologies, casting them in a new life-giving way. It's a text that has feminist leanings and to some, it would probably be considered heretical. The reason I keep picking it up and re-examining it every year is because it reminds me of the fact that I don't have to accept or be bound by the status quo (in terms of theology and belief system) and that it inspires me to look for ways to continue to be in relationship with God in refreshing, life-giving ways. I have my critiques of it, as I do with parts of the feminist theological thought... but overall, it's an intriguing book.

Although I don't relate to the stories of violence and sexual abuse, there are stories of race and racism which conjure up my own stories of pain and hurt as a result of damaging, racist, manipulative behaviors toward me and/or people close to me.

[Tangent] I am not closed-minded enough nor naive enough to believe that people don't have varying opinions about many things, including theology, but what really gets me is when people are not able nor willing to allow, consider or permit other theologies and belief systems to exist that are not their own. That's when conversation ceases to exist and relationships are strained. Perhaps some of the unwillingness can be attributed to generational differences and upbringings. Perhaps I'm giving too much credit for one's personal responsibility to understand and articulate what they believe in and why. Perhaps its narrow, close-mindedness after all. And in that case, I've probably fallen into your limiting stereotype of a liberal, feminist, business-woman which is scary to you. And you probably wouldn't give me a chance anyway, even though you say you would. That's sad and it's your loss.

There are many quotes from the book with which I resonate. There are also some with which I wrestle. Here's one about the bible that I have always felt was true for me and how I approach the bible not as THE inerrant, Word of God, but rather as a document to be studied as it gave witness to those who wrote it and compiled it.

"The Bible is a multi-voiced witness to the endeavor to know God and reverence life. As a human document, it is flawed in its grasp of ultimate things, but within it - as in our own flawed lives - we glimpse a mystery that holds us, always."