Embodied

I was reminded again this week - in multiple ways - about how nothing in this world really matters until it is embodied. That is, until it's human and we can interact with it. 

Truth is truth and facts are facts, but the fact that an apple falls from a tree doesn't matter at all unless you have a vested interest in that apple. Truth is, stuff happens in nature all the time that doesn't affect us because, well, because it doesn't have an effect on us. It's only when it becomes pertinent to our lives that it really gets some skin on it. 

I'm talking about engaging with headlines. It's great to be informed about the world, but until and unless you can have an impact on it, it doesn't really matter. Christians are being slaughtered in Nigeria; young children are being raped in England; Muslims are being targeted in America. And on and on and on we go, but there's nothing that any of us can actually do about it...

...except love the one right next to us. 

The only real, legitimate impact that any of us stands to have when it comes to the headlines and to the problems of humanity is to make sure they're not happening in our neighborhoods. That's it. You can't solve Nigeria. You can't solve England. You can't solve America. You can only do your little part right here in Heresville. 

I'm talking about healthcare. We get all these young nurses coming in with textbook knowledge, but none of it matters until you're looking at the patient. Until you're interacting with them. Doctors have studied for years and know lots of things, but no patient is a textbook; they're a living human being. So that thing that you think you know everything about...isn't a paragraph on a page; it's a lived experience, and that changes it. 

And if you can't recognize and adapt to the ways that embodiment changes facts, you're dangerous. You can be smart - you might even be the smartest person in the room - but you lack wisdom. And wisdom is the thing that teaches you how to react, how to respond, how to engage. 

I'm talking about faith. You can read the Bible and go to church and buy the T-shirt and say all the right things and these are facts, but you can't really understand God unless you live Him. In your heart, in your actions, in your experience - you have to live faith to truly understand it. 

I saw a post online a day or two ago where someone was complaining about the popular quiz show Jeopardy! having categories about the Bible. The Bible, this person said, shouldn't be on a trivia show because you can't create trivia based on peoples' perceptions and beliefs and ideas. Several came to defend the category, explaining that the Bible is a static thing that exists just like any other piece of literature exists and therefore has legitimate concrete answers based in facts. It is written... 

And yet, there's a certain point to it. There are plenty of folks who are pretty good at Bible trivia, but they aren't good at faith...because they haven't lived it. They aren't living it. It's not embodied for them, so it's really nothing but a good idea. 

Embodiment is what makes it dynamic. And beautiful. And amazing. 

So we have to understand that any time we're interacting with the world, it's not this objective thing that's just out there and exists and is static and factual. It doesn't really matter how much you know...because even what you know is changed by the living of it. We have to keep our eyes - and our hearts - open to this living. It's the only way.