Hard to Forget

So I have been thinking some more about the idea of the Yahweh Factor, which is my term for the the accounting in my thinking that God is far bigger and far more imaginative than I can ever hope to be. The Yahweh Factor is the wild card that must exist in every situation in order to allow God to be God and to operate in the theater that we cannot limit.

What I have been thinking is that the scriptures are much, much more interesting if we can try to read it for them first time with the concept of the Yahweh Factor in place.

Here is an example. We all know the basic story of Jonah. God-says-go-Jonah-says-no-storm
-overboard-fish-new-perspective-message-delivered-message-received. In the time when I was a child (before children received the story from talking vegetables) I was taught this story on flannel-graph boards. Constant exposure has led the fish to be less dramatic, perhaps smaller and - most importantly - expected. The fish always shows up. Less and less of a Yahweh Factor and more and more of a "yeah, but what can you say about this story that is new?" element of thinking.

It is so hard to forget. Can you possibly imagine hearing the story and not expecting the fish? "Yeah, so they threw Jonah overboard and ... are you ready for this ... a giant fish swallowed him whole!"

To try and relate it that way makes me sound like a stoner. The Yahweh Factor has rubbed off of this story so that it loses some, if not most, of its mystique.

So what to do about this? Try harder to forget? Maybe. But maybe, too, we could come up with some new stories? True ones would be great, but we could also update and re-cast some of the old ones. Maybe this guy, named Stan, was supposed to go to Tehran to preach a message of repentance to that wacko-brained leader. Stan says, "Nuts to that!" but he cannot escape the burden of this calling. He thinks, "I've got to get away for a while; too much stress" and boards a plane for Miami, and from there he will take a cruise to Jamaica. But during the flight to Miami, a terrorist seizes control of the plane and Stan is forced to jump without a parachute. While he is plummeting to earth and certain death, he is caught by a rare and exceedingly large bird that grabs him. Stan is now suspended in the bird's beak and there he remains for three days. This bird just keeps flying - it never seems to tire. Finally it lands in a sandy terrain, drops Stan, and then immediately lifts off into the air. Stan is alone in a strange place with no credible explanation as to how he came to be there. He begins to wander around and before long realizes that he is in Iran, only a few miles from the city of Tehran.

Okay, so that's pretty simplistic and pretty lame ... but I just made it up while sitting here.

What if we obfuscated the story line enough that many readers would not see the direct parallel to the story of Jonah? Could they then accept a giant bird (or whatever came along to further God's plan) in the form of the Yahweh Factor? I think it could be a gateway to re-invigorate the imagination and open our minds to just how diverse and resourceful and clever God can be.

Just thinking.