Tell the truth, have you ever found God in church? I never did. I just found a bunch of folks hoping for [God] to show. Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me. And I think all the other folks did too. They come to church to share God, not find God.
(Alice Walker, The Color Purple)
So beautiful! So grounded. So real!
For many of us, our comprehension of God has been bound in childhood stories of an old-man-with-a-white-beard-in-the-sky. An all-powerful, vengeful being who metes out punishment. An esoteric, beyond-human-comprehension kind of power. Not so beautiful. Not so grounded. Not so real.
But in Alice Walker’s simple statement, our understanding moves from theory to praxis; from “answer” to experience. God is embodied. Experienced. In our space. In ordinary, everyday people. Flesh and blood. Incarnate.
What if our hunger for logic and explanation is the very thing that heightens our never-ending search? What if our belief in God is never supposed to provide answers? What if our experience of God is not in any form beyond (or limited by) the beauty and expansiveness of Alice Walker’s character in The Color Purple? What if we simply and profoundly knew, felt, loved, and allowed ourselves to be loved by God in one another?
Any God I ever felt…I brought in with me…[we] come…to share God, not to find God.
A prayer I barely dare breathe. Too beautiful? Too grounded? Too real?
And if possible? If true? What then?
Everything changes. May it be so.
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
“We share God” May it be so indeed. This is one of the most beautiful expressions of what I believe that I have ever read. Thank you!
Thank you, Pearl. So much.
Thanks, Ronna! This is so true!!
.-= Nicki´s last blog ..Dear Father =-.
Ronna – I am enjoying your writing SO much! I’m glad I found your blog!
One of the things I’ve been ruminating about lately and that kind of sticks in my craw is that I don’t fully understand what it means to “glorify God”. So often we hear preachers say “we were created to glorify God”. Well, what the heck does that mean exactly? Does it mean we’re worshiping an egocentric god whose only purpose for making us was to make him/herself look good? It doens’t fit with the Jesus story, I don’t think. And… ugh… that’s not the kind of god I want to connect with.
I’ve just often thought I’d like to hear a progressive theologian take on that topic, so that’s why I’m dropping it here.
.-= Heather Plett´s last blog ..Introducing… the Fumbling for Words Writers’ Club! =-.
Ooooh – do I ever love this question! Can I promise an upcoming blog post to the topic? I can already feel it comin’ on! Thanks, Heather!
that is a FANTASTIC quote- and one i hadn’t encountered before. (or if i had, it just wasn’t with the right timing…) alice walker’s words (and your own, in reflection) give me a little boost of courage and the sense of freedom to know that i am not confined to experiencing or expressing God within the four walls of a church or in the shadow of a steeple.
SO glad, Lauren. Isn’t it amazing that we’re taught (or told) that God is beyond imagination, scope, size, understanding, even comprehension and yet our images and experiences are so damn small! Let’s blow that up and imagine something no less amazing, but simultaneously real, grounded, and embodied!! I’m with ya!
Sharing, not finding. Bringing with, not going to. A heretical path to God.
I keep hearing ‘Amazing Grace’, sung in the style of the old Southern Spirituals, in the background of my mind… I do believe it’s time to go re-watch The Color Purple.
Thanks, Ms. Renegade.
Love your words here, Lissa. “A heretical path to God.” Sounds renegade-like…and beyond right! Let’s do it!
And yes, re-watching the Color Purple? It’s been forever since I’ve seen it. It’s time.
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