Sunday, November 2, 2008

GOD - LOVE and pronouns

Not sure if I wrote about this before.
I have a theory that as God who is LOVE is a unique being, it is grammatically inaccurate to use a pronoun as a short way to save a letter or two (he = two letters as opposed to God which has three or Lord which has four).

Then there is a second reason for not using a pronoun - this applies to English. We only have three choices: he, she, or it. In my mind none of these fits the Almighty, who is a Spirit (not a thing) and who as a spirit doesn't have gender.

What this means for me is I now aim to call the Almighty 'LOVE' whenever the bible says 'God'. I find people seems to understand better what I am talking about when I use a word from their vocabulary (LOVE) and not one from mine (God).
And to be more accurate, and avoid genderizing, I aim to say 'the Almighty', rather than 'the Lord' - again 'the Lord' means nothing in modern society.

This can be a bit clumsy at times, but I love the nuances of meaning that often emerge.
Know that the Lord is God. He made us and we are his – his people, the sheep of his flock.(Ps 100) becomes:
Know that the Almighty is LOVE. LOVE made us, and we are LOVE'S - LOVE'S people, the sheep of LOVE'S flock.
Wow what a challenge I find that - to be one of the LOVE people!
More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Morte D'Arthur)