Five Minute Friday :: Clarify

• Five Minute Friday :: Clarify Linkup

You don't get much clarity about an object or situation if there's not enough light to show the details. Ever since God said, "let there be light," and there was light, we've had a front row seat that clarifies the glories of creation.

As our host Kate said, we try different ways to clarify the life path ahead, and with good reason. Looking at all the inputs as best as possible helps reveal how we might contribute to the planet's greater good and give God the glory. We talk about transparency in financial and other transactions, in our everyday family and workaday interactions.

Those of us in the church have a habit of trying to clarify God's attributes and actions. Although we have God's words in scripture, some of those need interpreting to clarify them. Then again, we have the best interpreter of scripture, the incarnate Word Jesus Christ, who makes God's written word clearer than it otherwise would be. Some have called the sacraments "visible words," that also help clarify God's presence, God's ways, and God's will for creation.

Similar to ways God communicates with words and the Word, we humans interact with one another with speech and with symbols that sometimes are plainly familiar, sometimes need interpreting and clarifying by spoken explanations or with visual illustrations. Don't be obtuse and opaque! I really can't see through you. But is word not symbol in itself and is symbol not a kind of speech?

Whatever you call it (if anything at all), you probably interpret your context – neighborhood, workplace, church, school, or city – literally all the time. You read signage and other indicators that clarify where you are, the purpose or safety of a venue, if you want to eat in or take out from a particular eating place…

You almost definitely interpret wherever you are in order to discover and discern and clarify—what's the quickest route home?

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