Reflecting on a thought from Howard Thurman

Howard Thurman writes in "Creative Encounter" that God meets and begins to communicate with each person at the point of "what God means to that person." Thurman speaks of the "God-residue" in each person's life. By that he means the impression left in a person's memory, heart, experience of God. Thurman's concept is a very intriguing one, like so many of the ways Thurman has of making sense of life. This concept of the "God-residue" in a person's life is one that is not interested in judging the rightness or wrongness of someone's view of God. For Thurman, whether a person views God as a cosmic police chief or as a loving father that view of God is sacred ground and a beginning point in the encounter between God and a human being. Thurman is above all interested in the meeting between God and human beings.

As I read this early yesterday morning, it really got me thinking about my preaching, teaching, writing in the church. I seem to do a good bit of instructing about the "proper view of God," about what God is like and what God is not like. Now, some of that is certainly part of being a minister, but much of that probably runs roughshod over some sacred ground in people's lives. If God is humble enough to meet us at the point of our understanding of God, then shouldn't people of limited understanding like me be humble enough to seek out that same starting point with people as I attempt to communicate with them about God? In fact, maybe if I placed more emphasis on understanding another person's view of God, then I might begin discovering how God is being revealed to that other person, instead of trying to get the other person to adopt the view I have of God.

What Thurman is really getting at in his book is that the true knowledge of God arises out of a real meeting between the human and the Divine. And, this meeting has all the back and forth, peculiarities of a real relationship where communication must begin somewhere, where communication often fails, but where true communication comes as revelation. This is a long way from trying to get someone to accept the conception you have about God.

I will try one analogy and then get on with other things today. How about this - there are three children in a family, all girls. One girl has a very close and understanding relationship with her mother. The other two girls have difficulty getting along with their mother. One day the girl who is close to the mother, instead of criticizing the other two for treating the mother badly, simply asks: "How do you think of our mother? If you had to describe her to a stranger, how would you describe her? Who is our mother to you?" After hearing from her two sisters, and clarifying just what their experience has been, then the two girls might ask: "So, who then is our mother to you?"

It seems to me that conversations like this bring understanding and perhaps even revelation about human relationships and about the divine-human relationship as well. Maybe the place where divine-human communication begins is much like the place where communication begins between humans - a sacred ground that is discovered by one who is deeply given to listening to the other. The Quakers speak of God as the one who brings new life to human beings by the Divine Listening. There is something mysterious and holy about real listening, really attending to another. When you feel that you are really being attended to or really attending to another, it causes something to come alive within and something to come to expression that is beyond what we are capable of alone.