Our god

Strange how all my life I have been this way, but that it has come to my attention recently from friends that I am quite intimidating. This is because I defend the language and fight for understanding. I got into it with a couple of close friends recently. Beer was flowing, and one of my friends was declaiming about a Christian song he was into. He liked the simplicity of the song. This is the now famous modern Christian anthem "Our God is an Awesome God". I pointed out that I have always had a hard time with that song because contained in the first two words is the implication that there is some god other than our god. My friend tried to shut me down saying that he and probably most others never thought that; that they merely considered the phrase to refer to God whom we are with. I agreed, but nevertheless, because I can understand it to mean "our god" as opposed to "their god", or "our god among the pantheon of gods" I argue that whether you understand it or not the message is contained within and sows the seeds of war and dissension; sets up another variation of the us/them dichotomy that causes such endless problems in the world. This is language, and as precise as we can get is better than sloppily hanging meanings all over the place. I know it is fun to cause confusion and ignore convention, but I have always felt that it is not enough merely to choose our meaning as we see fit, but to understand the meanings of words as given by tradition and then altering the meanings if they no longer fit or require expansion. Not so much when people are drinking beer, but the guys I hang out with are always trying to outsmart each other and they had strayed into my area. I fought them with the relentlessness of the correct position and the high ground, which I held. I know pricks like me are irritating, but there has to be a reason why we feel passion for the things we feel passion for, and I happen to feel it for language. I don't always know what I am hunting for in this world, but I sure as hell know what I won't put up with. My prey is invisible most of the time and is made of nothing but ideas. Everything changes and dies, but my little life can be considered a part of all the rest of the larger output of the planet we loosely call "life". My experiences and ideas come from and go to something much more inclusive than culture typically allows. And yeah, I pay a heavy price. I am frequently misunderstood and shunned as too intellectual. The part of me that is very much like every other human feels lonely and frustrated and confused much of the time, though I just can't shake the idea that there is a greater goal we are collectively aimed at. How we behave informs the unknowable. Language is understanding across bodies in time. Some of us have to watch the door.