There is a gap between me and you. Not just a gap, a gulf. A huge divide.
I’m not just talking about any physical distance. I’m not referring to the fact that I’m on one PC, typing this on a keyboard, and you, whoever you are, might be reading this in another town, or another country, or on the opposite side of the world. I’m thinking of a much more fundamental divide, something that would be between us even if you were sitting next to me and reading over my shoulder.
No matter how close you are, no matter how well we might get to know each other, we are still far apart. Each one of us is. We are all limited to our own minds, our own personalities, our own consciousness. We have our means of communication. We can email and message and write and talk. We can share ideas and feelings and images and concepts.
But there is limit to how well that works. How can I ever be sure that what I’m saying you are really understanding? How do I know that the feeling we seem to share is exactly the same for both of us? If I say ‘This text is blue’, do you see the same thing in your mind, or is blue a different thing to you? How would we know?
I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one to ask these questions. I expect philosophers have have dug into this. It’s their job, after all. But whatever answers they may have come up with, I am still left alone, trapped in myself, with the gulf between me and every other person in the world.
Bleak, isn’t it?
I don’t feel this way all the time. Most of the time, I don’t think about it. But when I do, I find some comfort, some hope, through my faith.
As a Christian, I believe in the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Three persons, unique, individual, separate. And yet – One God.
It is an ongoing mystery, something that I find endlessly fascinating, something which I cannot really understand. But not something I can dismiss either. For in the concept I find an answer to the essential loneliness of my existence. I see a way across the gulf.
Christianity teaches that God has invited us to join in this perfect fellowship. Not as one of the Trinity, but adopted into the family. And that is the promise and hope that we can all have.
Of course, this whole thing is very subjective. Perhaps you don’t know what I’m talking about. And then again, perhaps you do.
I don’t think of myself as a poet, but somethings are better said in poems. This was my response to some of these thoughts about distance, and about God, and about me.
You have the secret
Of breaking down barriers
You know the way
To tear down all walls
You have the answer
of ‘how to build bridges?’
You know the way to a heart.
You understand
The gulf that divides us
You have the measure
Of all that’s between
You have the hand
That can reach across distances
You know the way to reach me.
You have the love
That’s overcomes separation
You have within you
What it takes to be whole
You have the power
To reach all the lonely
You can bring us all home
There is no divide
That you cannot overcome!
There is no bridge
That you cannot build!
There are no doors
That you cannot open up!
There is no soul
That you cannot love!
In your being
There is perfect unity
In yourself
There is total love
In your heart
There is always some room for more
And in you
We all find a home.
Praise to you:
Breaker of barriers!
Builder of bridges!
Opener of doors!
Lover of souls!
Oh Lord who created us
Oh Christ who redeemed us
Oh Spirit who sanctifies
And welcomes us home!