“Fishing is a delusion entirely surrounded by liars in old clothes” Don Marques
I notice when I go fishing with friends or guides and we split up and then come back to talk about how well we did things can get distorted rather quickly. There is pressure to make sure one looks as good as the other guys. So, two fish becomes 5 fish, a fish of 16 inches becomes 20 inches, fish momentarily hooked become landed fish, and the one that got away was at least 2 feet long, And so on. I think we have all done this and told fish stories or at least told exaggerations of the truth. Maybe such exaggerations are harmless and just a part of the fishing experience. However, at the very least we have to acknowledge the distortion of reality that takes place as we are left wondering what each person truly caught and experienced. In essence, we don’t know the truth.
Human nature being what it is, I have become convinced that a similar phenomenon can occur in the Christian church as individuals claim to stories of experiencing the divine. There is pressure to look as spiritual as everyone else. So, if someone tells a story about how God answered a prayer or about how God caused something to happen, then there is a natural reaction in the listeners to try to match the story. And if those listening don’t really have a story that measures up then the exaggerations begin. I think there can be enough pressure to cause people to flat out make up things or at least distort things. When Christians get caught up in giving “testimony” it seems that no one is ever supposed to question the validity of the claims made. Discernment is not allowed otherwise one might be perceived as being “negative” or not being “spiritual”. This is unfortunate because the discerning individual rather than being judged as being cynical and lacking faith can actually be the person of great faith and one who is holding onto an authentic image of the divine.
I am no longer shocked or appalled by the possibility of Christians distorting the truth and losing discernment. It happened at the early church of Corinth. Each member was trying to ‘out do’ the other and things ended up rather chaotic and immature. My guess is that this sort of thing still goes on in many church fellowship groups just as men will commonly tell fish stories on rivers.
A big part of the problem is that I think we have a limited understanding of how God can be experienced. We hope that God is there with us every step of the way, always speaking to us and taking care of us, comforting us and making us aware of his presence in our lives. There is nothing wrong with this desire. The problems occur when we demand to experience God according to our own agenda and terms and we try to match our experience to fit in with the group. And then when God does not conform to our ways or the agenda of the group, then the pressure to measure up causes people to misinterpret their experiences. We can then distort reality. We try to make something out of nothing or misinterpret the nothingness experienced.
It is precisely here where many of us have not been taught properly about how to experience the absence and silence of God. This is a misunderstanding of how God uses emptiness and silence (basically, the “experience” of NOT experiencing God) to teach us true faith. This misunderstanding not only causes Christians to distort and exaggerate but it can also cause the Christian church to rely on old worn out clichés that have lost their vitality. Somehow, we think the old clichés will clothe our nakedness and keep us looking and feeling spiritual when in reality we may feel an aloneness and emptiness that is beyond words (Ironically, the fact that the emptiness and silence of God are beyond words is the clearest indication that such an experience might be genuinely divine) The clichés comfort us and keep us at the same level with those who are also using the clichés but at the cost of authenticity.
In a sense, these clichés used to try to express the experience of the divine can have about as much credibility as the fish stories told by men in old clothes. They no longer mean what they were intended to mean and they only prop up individuals and keep others from viewing them as inferior. It is easy to hide behind the clichés and use the clichés as masks. It becomes very difficult to come out from behind these masks and to be honest and authentic in such circles. How could an individual dare say ? “Lately I feel only God’s silence and absence in my life” when so much spiritual drama is being shared. It would be like a fisherman admitting, “I caught nothing”, while his buddies reported all kinds of fish stories.
I think Christians fall back to using clichés in Christian circles similar to how fisherman use old fish stories to make sure they measure up. Phrases such as “God spoke to me”, “God is really leading me to….”, “God is really convicting me”….”God is calling me to” , “I just know God wanted me to”… and many other similar phrases, have become almost meaningless and in some cases offensive. And sadly God gets “blamed” for doing many things that I doubt he had anything to do with.
Some how it is assumed that we know what someone is talking about when someone says “God spoke to me” or “God did such and such in my life” . Do we really know what this means? If we are honest, we have to admit that when we use these clichés we often don’t know what we are truly talking about and neither do our listeners for the ways of God are a mystery and remain hidden. (see I Cor 2:7 and Romans 11:33 )
I strongly believe that Christians need to develop a new sensitivity and a new language in communicating about the divine experience. There comes a time when our Christian language (the “lingo”) needs to be redeemed. Divine experiences should be communicated with the deepest humility, reverence and honesty, otherwise it can not only be offensive, but it causes things to get distorted in the same way that fish stories distort how good the fishing really was on a given day.
If we continue to merely use old worn out clichés the same way fishermen continue to wear old clothes then our fellowships becomes very similar to how fishing can be merely a “delusion surrounded by liars in old clothing”. And what should bind us, only alienates us and keeps us deluded.
And then no one knows how the divine is truly experienced or how truth is distorted.
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