Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Naked Jesus

Home
Progressive Christian
What’s the Shape of Water?

What’s the Shape of Water?

Last updated on: March 28, 2016 at 9:17 pm by John O'Keefe

What’s the Shape of Water? 2016-03-28T21:17:13-05:00 John O'Keefe

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Define the shape of water? Think about it for a moment, and tell me what’s the shape of water? It’s not hard. Water takes the shape of the vessel it is placed in, because water has no shape. In and of itself, water has no static shape on macro scale, it’s dynamic and changing depended upon the vessel. If water is in a glass, water takes the shape of the glass. The only time water can hold the shape outside the vessel is if it’s frozen.

The same can be said, or should be said, of our faith journey. When I’m asked to define my faith journey, I always want to say, “What’s the shape of water?” When I way that, I’m asking “In what context are you asking me to define my faith journey?”

After all, to define something as fluid as the shape of faith, one needs to first know the shape of the vessel it fills.

What I’ve found over time is many don’t like that answer. Many demand a definition, a constant definition, and one that applies to all areas of what they think are important – how they define faith. Because of this, many strive hard to define my faith, while never striving to see my vessel. They desire my faith to be as frozen as theirs.

Just as there’s no way to know the shape water will take, there’s no way of know the shape faith will take. In my views, that’s the best thing about faith. Faith forming out of a Methodist tradition will have a different shape than faith growing out of a Baptist tradition, and many times they are frozen. This is hard for many to grasp because they need lines, walls, boxes, and definition to keep things in their respective places; they demand a frozen faith. Because of this, it is hard for them to think in terms of a baptmetodepiscocathoreform tradition.

As I mentioned before, there’s only one-way water can hold a shape outside of a vessel, and that’s if it’s frozen. For some reason, and I’m unsure why, many claim that if your faith is not “frozen” into the shape they desire, you’re just a Touchy-Feely Freak with no true understanding of the Divine; you don’t have a real faith. But, a frozen faith is a faith that is cold, dead, and hard to touch. If you hold frozen water too long, it melts and drips out of your hand; a frozen faith is hard to touch. It’s a faith that loses sight of those in need, and how we need to change to meet the needs of others. A faith that is frozen is a faith that teaches we cannot love everyone, we cannot live in peace, we shouldn’t forgive. and we should just ignore grace.

A frozen faith says that you must have one view of the Collective Narrative. You must have one, never changing, view of what they define as “right doctrine.” Everything is frozen in time, usually frozen around some 18th or 19th century theologian.

When you understand that your faith is shaped by the flow of water into the vessel of your heart, your spirit, you start to develop a deeper understanding of how the Divine moves in your life. When you realize this, you know that some will attack you, ridicule you, and demand you change to fit the frozen shape they see as the right shape. When you stand your ground and express the shape you believe the Divine has opened in you, you will be tagged “argumentative.”

For me it’s simple, we must take the shape of a vessel that invites others to drink of the water we hold – we’re not called to be a frozen social club, or a cold production. Our communities of faith shouldn’t be a refrigerated buildings where we freeze the hearts of those seeking to walk with the Divine.

So, what’s the shape water?

Previous Post

March 15, 2016

A Spirit of Unity

Next Post

April 1, 2016 Claiming to Be A Follower of Christ

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abuse bad Bad Theology Blue Christian Karma Christmas Church Clinton Coming Out Day Cruz Dance Dangerous Church Discrimination Disruptive Faith disruptive peace Disrutive Church Doctrine Dominionism Evangelism Faith Fun good grace Hell Hillary Inclusive Justice Keller Leadership love Messy Church Missional New Parable Open Peace Play Politics Prayer Progressive racism random Safe Church Sessions Story Theology Trump truth Uncategorized

Select a Month March 2019 December 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 February 2018 December 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 October 2015 August 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does the Red Horse in Revelations symbolize?

Select your answer to see how you score.

War Death Famine Deception