This Story

 

This morning, watching Brad Warner on a YouTube video, talking about “Making Use of Your Talents,” I got sidetracked by a glorious ‘Aha!’ moment. He was referring to another author who had recommended reading the Bhagavad-Gita from the point of view of Krishna, rather than that of Arjuna. Brad said that he had some success with doing that, and was rewarded with some new and interesting insights.

Brad also talked about God in the same sentence as he mentioned Buddha, and he emphasized particularly that arguments about whether Buddha really lived, or whether God exists, are sort of beside the point. It doesn’t really matter, does it, if what is really important is to live worthily, using all our talents and abilities to their best effect?

Our imaginations can’t possibly have any effect on God. If we’ve let ourselves be distracted into thinking that Divine favor towards us depends on the manner in which we imagine God, then we’ve stopped thinking about the Source of All Things, and started to idolize (even to worship) our Own Notions of God, instead of the Reality of God.  When put that way, it seems to me to be the absolute height of absurdity. It smacks of hubris, as well.

So what are our imaginations good for? How do we know the best way to use our talents? In reflecting on these questions, I remembered one of my own blog posts in which I recommended, when we are reading the Bible, that we imagine the Bible is reading us, instead.

The content of my ‘Aha!’ moment came from drawing a parallel between reading the Bhagavad-Gita and reading the Bible, according to Brad’s suggestion. It occurred to me that I should try reading the Bible from God’s point of view. Wow!

I felt a cascade of imagery and memory; of emotion and metaphor. Unexpectedly, my imagination began to play over the dim panorama of history, all the way back to the beginning of the written word in its power and beauty. I read somewhere that language is hard-wired into the human brain, and it occurred to me that what God was creating was language itself, with human beings as the embodiment of it. How about that?

What if that is really what the Bible is— our love letter to God, full of dreams and regrets; confessions and yearnings? What if prayer is like reading a bedtime story to God?

Suddenly, I was stunned by how much sense it all made to me! The Bible isn’t God’s Word because God is talking to us; it’s God’s Word because that’s who it’s addressed to!

When we read the Bible, we can imagine God reading it; or better yet, us reading it to God.

When we go to church and light incense; make a procession; sing our hearts out; wear beautiful embroidery and vivid colors; then we can imagine the shine in God’s eyes, watching, rapt and attentive; caught up in our story, God’s story.

If we tell it well, then the whole universe will fall silent to listen, and the hush will carry through to all of the thin places— all the way out to the end of time.

 

God’s Word belongs to God because it’s a gift from US—

from God’s own Earth Creatures, time without end!

 

That’s what makes it Holy: it’s full of honesty.

It’s full of our trust—along with our bleak acceptance.

 

It’s full to the brim with our love— along with our rage;

full of our bitterness— along with our compassion;

full of our despair— along with our courage;

full of our dignity— along with our shame.

 

We told the stories of all of our heartaches, and all of our triumphs.

We laid bare all of the horror, telling our most shameful secrets.

We offered up all our most tragic mistakes; along with all of our happy endings.

 

We poured it all out— nothing held back!

 

And God cries, and laughs,

and sits on the edge of the seat,

and never gets tired of this story.