Anne Lamott on the names we use for God

One of my favorite pieces of spiritual wisdom comes from Carlos Valles, S.J., which  I read during my Jesuit novitiate. Father Valles wrote, “If you always imagine God in the same way, no matter how true and beautiful it may be, you will not be able to receive the gift of the new ways he has ready for you.”

In our conversation on “The Spiritual Life” podcast, Anne Lamott, one of my favorite spiritual writers, points out that sometimes even the names we use for God need to be refreshed.

For some people, the word “God” carries a tremendous amount of baggage because of what they have been told about God. One of my friends told me that she used to think of God as a “parole officer.” So not only was God ready to pounce on you, judge you and perhaps punish you, but you had already done something wrong!

Often, people’s images of God come from the way that they have viewed other authority figures. For example, if a person was raised in a household where love was “transactional” (that is, I will love you only if you do certain things), then they might transfer those same attributes onto God. This is one reason why the image of God as “Father” may not work for those whose fathers were cruel, distant or even abusive. 

In these situations, I usually ask people to describe an experience they have had of God’s love or consolation. And usually, if they dig deep enough, people can remember one. So, they might say, “I felt a great sense of calm, peace and contentment.” And I’ll say: “Well, that’s God. Not the image you have in your head.”

Sometimes I even suggest that they remember that the First Commandment asks us not to worship “idols.” And isn’t that false image of God a kind of “idol” that needs to be set aside or even destroyed? In short, it’s about worshiping the true God, who is love, rather than the parole officer. Anne Lamott goes a step further and suggests that even the words we use can be off-putting. (Here we recall the tradition of some Jewish people to avoid the word entirely, out reverence and devotion, and instead to write “G-d.”)  points to the practice of 12-step programs, which invite people to trust a “higher power.” Lamott  offers names like “goodness,” “life” or the acronym “Good Orderly Power.”

Speaking for myself, I’ve never had much problem with the word “God.” But I also know that God is bigger than any name we can use, and so some linguistic freedom in helping people reach the Living God, no matter what name they use, is helpful. Besides, to paraphrase St. Thomas Aquinas, who knew something about definitions and distinctions: If you can define it, then it’s not God.