Holiness and the F-Word

 

This morning I’ve been thinking about the word ‘holy’ for some reason. I started this train of thought by remembering a conversation I had with some girls at school yesterday.

 

I overheard one of them use the word ‘fucking’ and, since we were just standing around waiting for another P.E. class we were joining to get organized, I decided to give a mini-lesson on how and why that word—the F-word—sounds so offensive to people. 

 

Today, as I think about it, I am realizing that the word can only be offensive if there is really a God. Atheists and agnostics also often find the word offensive, but if they were asked why, I think they might have a hard time coming up with an explanation. 

 

The F-word is the epitome of whatever is the opposite of the word ‘holy,’ and the word ‘holy’ only has meaning in the context of God. Not just god as an impersonal force either. Holy defines a personal God—a God who can be wronged, defied, treated with disdain and therefore offended and abused in the most horrible way--horrible because of Who He is.

 

What does this have to do with the word ‘fuck?’

 

When I googled 'fuck' to find out what it means, I found it described as a . . .sassy, controversial, comforting, profane and sacred four-letter word covering a wide range of states including pain, anger, happiness, boredom, elation, panic, disgust, and excitement.

 

So it seems that, though the word has been associated with the sex act, it has become many other things as well. It’s become a reflection of the confusion of our age: profane and sacred and everything else we want to make it.

 

Since it has become all those things—in a sense all things to all people—I am going to take the liberty of giving it another definition myself. I will say that ‘fuck’ is a term of rebellion against all goodness with a capital “G.” In reference to the sex act, the word is a deliberate desecration of an act of holiness—the act which a Holy God designed as a process for creating holy human beings—human beings in His image.

 

And so the word, to me, expresses desecration in general, and a defiance of all that is good—all that is holy.

 

Even if we don’t know why, we human beings seem to have an ingrained sense of awe—some sense of right and wrong—about these words.  Both of them: ‘holy’ and ‘fuck’. I believe that’s because we have an innate sense, however vaguely the concept is understood, that there is a God and that He is good. 

 

We have an innate sense, as well, that He is more than an impersonal force, however inadequately we understand that concept. We sense that God is personal, and is, Himself, the epitome of holiness. Or, I guess it’s holiness that is the epitome of God?

 

What if that’s true? What if holiness is the central, defining characteristic of God? What if every other characteristic of Him wraps around this central reality?  What if His goodness, his wisdom, his merciful compassion, even his omnipotence, surround His central core—His holiness? What if Holiness defines Him?

 

This is the characteristic, or personality trait of God, that brings me most often to my knees. When I mediate on Him—when my mind and heart turn in His direction—I collapse in awe and worship because of His holiness.  I can’t help it. Even though I can’t describe ‘holy’ adequately, any more than I can adequately describe Him, yet holiness floods my spirit when I think of Him.

 

I believe that experiencing holiness is experiencing God. For real.

 

And that’s why the F-word always makes me cringe.