THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 16, 1996 TAG: 9603150065
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Issues of Faith
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Betsy Wright
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
The walk was to be a special healing time between a brother and sister who'd waged one too many battles against one another. They would talk, reconcile and then end their walk in a warm embrace. When that didn't occur, the walk was deemed a disaster.
That was the way she saw it.
It was just a walk. The brother needed the exercise after a big lunch, his sister wanted some fresh air and his wife was too tired to join them. Everybody won because the brother got in a little jog, the wife got a nap and the sister got to spend time on the beach.
That was the way he saw it.
Later, when they each related their side of the story to me, I realized that my husband and his sister might have gone on the same walk, but they definitely were not on the same path.
And that is life. Two people with two different sets of emotional baggage and two different expectations set out to do something together. When they return home, it is often with two totally different impressions of the trip.
Our religious life is definitely that way. How often have you listened to a Sunday school lesson or a homily, then discussed it with your spouse or friend only to discover that they must have been sitting in another sanctuary in another part of town?
``She didn't say that! She said such-and-such!''
You know you're right. The other person knows he or she is right.
And guess what? You're both probably right, but just like the aforementioned walk, each of you came into the sanctuary with different emotions, different expectations, even different educational backgrounds and different temperaments. Is it so surprising that we walk away with different impressions?
In the five years I've written this column, I have always been amused by the many people of faith - and they are almost always Christians - who assume that they and only they know God.
``God's not like that!,'' they say. ``God is like this . . . '' and then proceed to tell me who and what God is and isn't.
Almost never do these people say ``I believe.'' They almost always say, ``I know.''
I generally have to laugh to myself and say, ``I'm glad you know, because I don't know much of anything.''
And that's the truth. While there is much I believe about God, you could fit what I know about God in a thimble. Basically, I know two things about God:
God created us and therefore loves each of us and wants us to love each other.
God wants a relationship with each of us.
How do I know those two things? I have learned these two things by walking my own spiritual path, but mostly by listening to and learning about the spiritual paths of thousands of other humans. Though we may all perceive God in different ways, almost all of these humans - be they Muslim, Jew, Christian, Hindu or one of another faith - have come to the same two conclusions about God.
And so it is with certainty that I can say ``I know' those two things.
Now, when it comes to Scripture, sermons, religious history, the meaning of a hymn or a sacrament . . . these are the areas of faith where I must admit that while I might believe this-means-this, I cannot for certain say I know this-means-this.
In a letter, reader Thomas Roper wrote similar sentiments:
``Part of God's greatness is the way God moves us all down a variety of spiritual pathways. God may desire one individual to walk beside a beautiful spiritual oceanside to see life, people and God from that point of view. God may desire another person to walk a spiritual mountain pathway to see people, life and spirituality from that viewpoint. God may want yet another on a bustling city street with a spiritual hectic pace. . . .
``The diversity of points of view on God demonstrates that genuine certainty and knowledge of God are impossible. . . .''
I believe all humans are on the same spiritual walk, each attempting to relate to their creator, who is God, and then each trying to relate to other humans and tell what God has done for them.
Our varied experiences, gifts, talents, intellects and temperaments, all work to put us each, however, on different paths to God.
Same walk, different path.
Ultimately, a lone venture that no one can take with you or for you.
by CNB