Quick English Lesson

I remember a young life talk in high school about the way God intended us to be in communion with him. To illustrate, there were 2 glasses of water…one was God, the other, us. The glasses could pour back and forth. And then SIN (red dye) comes into the picture and our glass is tainted. We can no longer pour into Christ because he can have no part of imperfection. It makes the gap between us large and gaping. Not only can we not be apart of him, a piece of him; but now as a glass full of red, we can’t understand or comprehend what it would feel like to be a glass full of clear; purity. It makes reality hard but it also limits the intangibles… our thoughts, our feelings. Does that make sense? ( I feel like it was much clearer In my head!)

But then as I sat reading Anne Lammott’s new book, “Stitches” my mind was blown. She writes:

“What a paradox: that we connect with God, with divinity, in our flesh and blood and time and space.” (If I were a glass full of pure water this was no doubt make sense, but since I’m red I had a hard time wrapping my mind around it.) 

I read it...and then I read it again…and then again. The more I read it, the less sense it made. The more I thought about it, the less sense God made. If God is perfect, holy, divine…if he cannot be tainted or tarnished, if our ugly, messy selves can’t even begin to comprehend or match up…how are we able to even get glimpses of him?

The only revelation I could make was this: GOD is so FREAKING big! His perfection meets us in our imperfection, his purity in our absurdity. I guess that’s what a paradox is. It just feels like it holds so much more weight than being a simple English term.

Anne’s quote makes me feel like my whole life then is a paradox. But it’s not just God’s goodness comparing to my badness, it’s not just that he contradicts me, which is how paradox’s are described and defined. Its that,when I commune with God (the biggest contradiction in my life) I in fact live in accord and harmony (which I’ll have you know are antonyms of contradiction). Man, this all gets so confusing, English 101 didn't prepare me for any of these questions. You know you serve an amazing god when even his paradox’s are paradox’s.