You Just Have to Be There
You know what I hate? Those moments when you tell a story that you think is hilarious and no one really seems to get it so you have to trail off with that lame ending, "Oh well, I guess you just had to be there..." Come on, I know you can relate.
Language is a wonderful method of communication, but it has it's limits. Some things can't be described, you just have to live through them. I wrote in a journal entry once, "For all my love of writing, my favorite moments in life are the ones where words fail me. The best things cannot be recreated by even the biggest and most descriptive of words. I cannot describe to you that sunset or what it felt like to meet my best friend for the first time. The most wonderful things cannot be spoken into, or out of, existence. We will either share them in silence, or else not at all."
While things beautiful beyond words are certainly a blessing, they are also a curse, especially when it comes to my blogging. I try and try to come up with the right phrasing or the perfect analogy to get across the things God puts on my heart, but my words always seem inadequate. How can I use the word "love" to describe God's feeling towards me when I also use it to describe how I feel about my favorite food? How can I even use "feeling" to describe something so eternal and unfailing? The glory of the Lord makes my words seem broken and weak.
Today I realized, with much relief, that I am not the first person to feel this way. In fact, now that I think about it, I realize the Bible is littered with authors who felt they couldn't even comprehend the entirety of what they were trying to say. Here are a few examples:
Do you not know? Have you not hear? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. (Isaiah 40:28)
That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." (1 Corinthians 2:9)
Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. (Psalm 145:3)
God's voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. (Job 37:5)
I take great comfort in the fact that I am not the only one who feels I neither comprehend nor adequately describe the might, glory, and love of our Lord. However, perhaps even more comforting to me is the idea that I serve a God so mighty, glorious, and full of love that I never will be able to reach a point where I understand his ways. I do not want to serve a god small and simple enough that I can wrap my mind around him.
Instead, I am proud to call myself the daughter of the Creator of the entire universe, whose understandings, ways, plans and greatness are too much for me to fathom. I would love to tell you about how great it is, but I suppose you kind of have to be there to understand. That is why I will use my limited words the best way I know how and invite you, no, beg you to come experience with me the things I cannot describe.
Language is a wonderful method of communication, but it has it's limits. Some things can't be described, you just have to live through them. I wrote in a journal entry once, "For all my love of writing, my favorite moments in life are the ones where words fail me. The best things cannot be recreated by even the biggest and most descriptive of words. I cannot describe to you that sunset or what it felt like to meet my best friend for the first time. The most wonderful things cannot be spoken into, or out of, existence. We will either share them in silence, or else not at all."
While things beautiful beyond words are certainly a blessing, they are also a curse, especially when it comes to my blogging. I try and try to come up with the right phrasing or the perfect analogy to get across the things God puts on my heart, but my words always seem inadequate. How can I use the word "love" to describe God's feeling towards me when I also use it to describe how I feel about my favorite food? How can I even use "feeling" to describe something so eternal and unfailing? The glory of the Lord makes my words seem broken and weak.
Today I realized, with much relief, that I am not the first person to feel this way. In fact, now that I think about it, I realize the Bible is littered with authors who felt they couldn't even comprehend the entirety of what they were trying to say. Here are a few examples:
Do you not know? Have you not hear? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. (Isaiah 40:28)
That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." (1 Corinthians 2:9)
Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. (Psalm 145:3)
God's voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. (Job 37:5)
I take great comfort in the fact that I am not the only one who feels I neither comprehend nor adequately describe the might, glory, and love of our Lord. However, perhaps even more comforting to me is the idea that I serve a God so mighty, glorious, and full of love that I never will be able to reach a point where I understand his ways. I do not want to serve a god small and simple enough that I can wrap my mind around him.
Instead, I am proud to call myself the daughter of the Creator of the entire universe, whose understandings, ways, plans and greatness are too much for me to fathom. I would love to tell you about how great it is, but I suppose you kind of have to be there to understand. That is why I will use my limited words the best way I know how and invite you, no, beg you to come experience with me the things I cannot describe.
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