What’s the Shape of Water?

Define the shape of water? Think about it for a moment, and tell me what’s the shape of water? It’s not hard. Water takes the shape of the vessel it is placed in, because water has no shape. In and of itself, water has no static shape on macro scale, it’s dynamic and changing depended upon the vessel. If water is in a glass, water takes the shape of the glass. The only time water can hold the shape outside the vessel is if it’s frozen.

The same can be said, or should be said, of our faith journey. When I’m asked to define my faith journey, I always want to say, “What’s the shape of water?” When I way that, I’m asking “In what context are you asking me to define my faith journey?”

After all, to define something as fluid as the shape of faith, one needs to first know the shape of the vessel it fills.

What I’ve found over time is many don’t like that answer. Many demand a definition, a constant definition, and one that applies to all areas of what they think are important – how they define faith. Because of this, many strive hard to define my faith, while never striving to see my vessel. They desire my faith to be as frozen as theirs.

Just as there’s no way to know the shape water will take, there’s no way of know the shape faith will take. In my views, that’s the best thing about faith. Faith forming out of a Methodist tradition will have a different shape than faith growing out of a Baptist tradition, and many times they are frozen. This is hard for many to grasp because they need lines, walls, boxes, and definition to keep things in their respective places; they demand a frozen faith. Because of this, it is hard for them to think in terms of a baptmetodepiscocathoreform tradition.

As I mentioned before, there’s only one-way water can hold a shape outside of a vessel, and that’s if it’s frozen. For some reason, and I’m unsure why, many claim that if your faith is not “frozen” into the shape they desire, you’re just a Touchy-Feely Freak with no true understanding of the Divine; you don’t have a real faith. But, a frozen faith is a faith that is cold, dead, and hard to touch. If you hold frozen water too long, it melts and drips out of your hand; a frozen faith is hard to touch. It’s a faith that loses sight of those in need, and how we need to change to meet the needs of others. A faith that is frozen is a faith that teaches we cannot love everyone, we cannot live in peace, we shouldn’t forgive. and we should just ignore grace.

A frozen faith says that you must have one view of the Collective Narrative. You must have one, never changing, view of what they define as “right doctrine.” Everything is frozen in time, usually frozen around some 18^th or 19^th century theologian.

When you understand that your faith is shaped by the flow of water into the vessel of your heart, your spirit, you start to develop a deeper understanding of how the Divine moves in your life. When you realize this, you know that some will attack you, ridicule you, and demand you change to fit the frozen shape they see as the right shape. When you stand your ground and express the shape you believe the Divine has opened in you, you will be tagged “argumentative.”

For me it’s simple, we must take the shape of a vessel that invites others to drink of the water we hold – we’re not called to be a frozen social club, or a cold production. Our communities of faith shouldn’t be a refrigerated buildings where we freeze the hearts of those seeking to walk with the Divine.

So, what’s the shape water?