God Doesn't Need Defending

Surfing the other day I came across this wonderful quote on One House from Yann Martel's wonderful book, Life of Pi.

And that wasn't the end of it. There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God, as if Ultimate Reality, as if the sustaining frame of existence, were something weak and helpless. These people walk by a widow deformed by leprosy begging for a few paise, walk by children dressed in rags living in the street, and they think, "Business as usual." But if they perceive a slight against God, it is a different story. Their faces go red, their chests heave mightily, they sputter angry words. The degree of their indignation is astonishing. Their resolve is frightening.

These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart. Meanwhile, the lot of of widows and homeless children is very hard, and it is to their defence, not God's, that the self-righteous should rush.

Life of Pi
Yann Martel

I have a hunch that when we are "defending God" we are in truth defending our interpretation of God. I also have a hunch that our own interpretations of God are weak and indefensible. After all, how in the great universe can we think that our poor and limited words can ever truly describe God.

I for one am glad that I can't describe the fullness of God or the greatness or the many, many, many different sides and interpretations. I would hate to think that God is so small that I can describe God's fullness with what I have to say or scrunch it into a box of human words.