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The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search |
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a healthy church...transformingLIFE |
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December 2005 |
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Life without churchGrowing in faith without being able to get to church – Imogen Wegman explains how she has coped in a foreign land. Did you know that in German, the personal, informal form of 'you' (du) is used when speaking to Jesus? (Or at least in my version of the New Testament.) This is unusual; normally the formal 'Sie' is used for people such as Jesus, teachers, strangers, those with a higher status: 'Sie' is much more formal, full of respect, always used in essays. The 'du' form is used with well-known equals, friends and parents. This translation point got me thinking: would I call God 'Sie' or 'du' if I met him in the supermarket? Earlier this year I would have said a definite 'Sie'. He is above me, a teacher and simply out of respect, I would not have considered saying 'du, Gott.' But now I have learnt to trust him far more and I can see a lot of logic behind calling him 'du'. He is, after all, in control of my life, I trust him fully and he knows everything about me. He is, as the songs say, my best friend and I wouldn’t call my best friend 'Sie.' The turning point there is trust. I have been taught so much in the past year about trusting God with everything in my life. It's a big step, leaving home, and I have made it temporarily by going on a 10 month exchange to Austria. Unfortunately, due to various reasons, I have been to church fewer times than I can count on two hands in the past months. This has forced me to find alternative sources of faith development, but has also been one of the best things to happen to me this year. Away from family, friends and familiarities, I have needed comfort, calming and occasionally rescuing, and as a result, I have developed a prayer reflex (pray in any situation, by instinct) and every day brings new answered prayers. I now understand 'ask and you shall receive.' Maybe some people will be horrified; how can I have learnt about the technical side of being an active Christian? But while it's good to know the basics, this year I have not missed learning the 1,2,3 steps to converting a heathen with three children and a cat. If we trust God more, there is no reason to learn all the steps. Usually we study how our relationship with God affects others, but we take little 'selfish' time to look at how this relationship affects us. Maybe if we did, we could learn to listen to God better and follow his direct instuctions. At first I prayed, apologising for not attending church, but then I realised that God was guarding me all the way, and for once I understand (I think) his reasons. He gave me a year to further my own journey with him, not having to worry about organising youth group, teaching small children and other such nice 'distractions'. Now I can return to all that, full of confidence in his ability to guide me. My trust in God has quadrupled, and only now can I really say I feel comfortable in my relationship with him. So would I call God 'Sie' or 'du'? I'm still not entirely sure, but I think I'd ask him what he wanted. Maybe I should just use the 'yous' type plural form 'ihr'. What would you choose?
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