I have a sweet friend, who becomes dearer to me all of the time. I have taken her to chemotherapy a couple of times and the conversations we have in the car, or those that I hear in the waiting area have been carving out a place in my heart.
Driving to the office, she told me about her love for God’s word. Not just that, but she told me about her struggle with its content. She prays for forgiveness when reading the Old Testament. Not after, but before, because she knows that she will not understand it on her own.
This 83 year old dynamo, sees the Old Testament as perplexing, and Revelation is “spooky”. Still it is the only thing she asked for while in the hospital, recently. She can’t pronounce the names or the cities but that isn’t enough to deter her.
Her favorite passage says that God is slow to anger. That is good news for this feisty female. She hates getting her “feathers ruffled”. When she feels anger coming on she prays for God to, “kick Satan’s butt and get him the heck outta here.”
Being labeled, “quick to anger” is not on her agenda. It is really safest to follow her agenda. In fact, just talking about the possibility of ruffled feathers seemed to make a few stand on end.
I can’t help myself. I just love her. I learn more from her Oklahoma phrasing than many sermons that I have sat under.
She teaches me that there is a simplicity to God’s word. I love this. When I am with her, I want more of God’s butt kicking ability. I don’t feel like I have to understand it all, or put it under some theological heading.
I think that a lifetime teaches us this. We craft a language between a sinner and a Savior. The grammar isn’t perfect and the spelling is lacking but it is personal. Intensely personal.
A real God, in real life, in real relationship.
