The idea of metaphor came to mind this morning;
God as a mother hen, the wind of the spirit, and in particular Jesus’ metaphors of the mustard seed and the narrow gate. Today, rather than holding too tightly to his story line concerning the question of inadequacy or restricted access, I am wondering if he is writing a definition of faith, where faith is the acknowledgement that we don’t have the whole picture.
Perhaps, taking what we think we know and holding it loosely, is actually the key to discovering the tree within the seed or the garden beyond the gate. Perhaps thinking we know all the answers and walking that way, oblivious to all else, is not faith. Perhaps faith is agreeing to proceed with limited vision for a bit.
Our difficulty with faith then, would not be our inability to adhere to a tightly configured set of rules, but rather would be in tightly holding our own understanding of the master to be all encompassing.
I love this, Jim. Defining ‘faith’ has been a topic of discussion for us lately, and I think you’ve encapsulated an excellent description – and new perspective 🙂
Thanks – I have been thinking about it a lot also,
trying to figure out how to talk about it and be a bit removed
from some of the old baggage of assumptions :0)
Sometimes I don’t think we are even aware of what we are assuming.