Lunatics & Liars: The Power of Story

In the sixth century on the isle of Iona off the coast of Scotland, a man named Columba founded an abbey, bringing Christianity to the Celtic world. Celtic spirituality has gifted the world with many things, among them being a new name for the Holy Spirit: An Geadh Fiadhaich. Rather than the familiar avian image of the dove, they preferred the Wild Goose. It is not that they didn't know about doves. In fact, Columba literally means dove. No, the image of the goose was preferred because of the wildness of geese. They are free and unfettered. Geese are loud and bold. They do pretty much what they want and are difficult to capture, contain, and tame. They will bite those who try to keep them. Conjuring up images of the untamed and untamable nature of God inspired these Christians to pursue God as one might pursue a goose, on a wild goose chase if you will. This sort of inspiration will land you in places where you may not choose to go yourself and very well may inspire you to feats you may not at first believe are possible.

• The bird will still be there when I can chase it.

• I'll just scan this flock one more time, maybe there is a rarity.

• The bird will show up if I just wait another 15 minutes...half hour...hour... 

You don’t have to be a fan of Doctor Who to appreciate an example from a recent episode in which the Doctor was inspired to an incredible act of perseverance (think billions of years) by a story. Similar to a video game where you have unlimited lives to complete a level but have to start over every time you don’t complete it, that was the Doctor’s predicament. But since he knew he would pass the same way again (and again, and again) he left himself a word of encouragement, literally. That one word was “bird.” The reason for that word was a Brothers Grimm story about a king who asks questions of a wise shepherd boy. It goes like this:

"’How many seconds in eternity?’ The Shepherd Boy says, ‘There is a mountain of pure diamond, it takes an hour to climb it, and an hour to go around it. Every hundred years, a little bird comes and sharpens its beak on the diamond mountain. And when the entire mountain is chiseled away, the first second of eternity will have passed!’"  The Doctor then adds, “You must think that's a helluva long time. Personally? I think that's a helluva bird!” How you hear a story is vital - is the length of eternity a curse or a gift?

Birders tell themselves stories all the time

But an important lesson to learn is not to draw conclusions based solely on wishes. A few years ago at the end of the Super Bowl of Birding (yeah, that's a thing) I had a conversation with another birder that confirmed for me how important it is to be both a dreamer and a skeptic. Earlier in day, my team, the Wicked Pishahs (a totally "inside baseball” pun that works with New England birders) had been at the fish pier in Gloucester where we saw some Thick-billed Murres. We had attempted with a large dose of hope to call them Common Murres, but spent a good deal of time examining them to confirm our identification. Before we left, we saw the Raven Lunatics (you can't make this stuff up) pull in, so we said a friendly hello to the competition, but naturally didn't share the sighting with them. Over pizza, while waiting for the results to be announced, one of the Lunatics told me that we should have stuck around the pier because they found five dovekies there. One dovekie would be remarkable and five would be nearly unheard of, AND he described the precise location where we had just worked hard at identifying the Murres! I tried in the nicest way possible to tell him that his identification was incorrect (I'm not sure I succeeded on the nice part). It was easy to see why they made the call they did, their bird was worth the maximum number of points and also got them a bonus, while ours, while decent, was the lesser value of the two Murres.

Both teams were dreaming that day. Indeed, birders (particularly competitive birders) cannot not be dreamers. If we didn't tell ourselves stories about finding rare birds, or the first bird, or simply more birds, we would never find the motivation to find any birds. We dreamed that the Thick-billed Murres were Common Murres, but once we saw the birds, dreaming turned to skepticism so that we could be confident in our identification. The other team never switched over from dreaming, they didn't allow doubt to get in the way of the identification they wanted.

Too many believers consider doubt to be the opposite of faith, but in truth, faith requires a healthy dose of doubt to keep it useful. If we can't dream of a better day, that day will never dawn. On the other hand, if all we do is dream then we don't have the tools to deal with the hand we are dealt. The opposite of faith is certainty. Specifically, it is a type of certainty that doesn't allow doubt. It is the sort of thing that transforms doctrine into dogma and leads to litmus tests for the faithful and catechisms to keep believers in lock step. The gift of faith is the ability to find truth in the stories we believe, motivating us to always keep searching. The story you believe should provide motivation to go on the Wild Goose Chase, but the practice of being on the chase must also teach you to discern. Experience helps you to be an optimistic skeptic, hoping always for the best, but careful to test what you find to be sure it is right and good, and thus right and good for you.

The ancient Hebrews told a new story when they said Sh'ma Yisra'eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad, “Hear O Israel, the LORD your God, the LORD is one.” Aside from Zoroastrians, no other belief system at that time told the story of a single deity, for everyone else there were multiple gods. Still, it is important to note that even the Hebrews didn't act on that belief like it was absolute truth, for if they had they would not have warred with other nations by claiming that YHWH was stronger than their god, since if there is truly only one god, then Baal, Asherah,  Ra,  Zeus, or Jupiter could not exist. Jesus understood this and made it exceedingly clear when he interpreted the great law as being equivalent to loving your neighbor as yourself. For, you see, if your neighbor is worshiping any god, your neighbor is worshiping the one true god, i.e. the one you worship. And in case you missed the point, Jesus made it clear that this also applies to your enemies.

Loving God with your whole heart, soul, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself  is not a competition (though if it must be then outdo each other in showing love). It is a command, therefore it should become a practice. If you commit to the practice of loving God with your whole heart, soul, and mind, not only will your behavior change, but your very being will change. That is the power of telling yourself a really good story. If you are going to chase the Spirit of God, it will be like a wild goose chase in that it will take you to places where you might not go yourself. And when you find yourself in this new territory, you will find not only that new actions are required, but you should also find yourself transformed.