Incarnation: Writing and Life (Christmas 2017)

The Christmas story is about something that is abstract to most of us (God) becoming concrete (Jesus). Of course, many people don't believe in God, but still have an abstract image of the god they don't believe in. There are countless books written that try to make sense out of Jesus (back to and including the original gospels). But whatever our views on God or Jesus, the idea of Incarnation is useful no matter what we believe.

Although incarnation is often use only in its religious sense, it also has a more universal meaning: according to Dictionary.com, it is "a person or thing regarded as embodying or exhibiting some quality, idea, or the like."

Whether we like it or not, we are all something incarnate, whether we are aware of it or not. Whatever views we have about deities, we all believe in abstractions. We may believe in faith or skepticism, cooperation or competition, or any number of other abstract ideas. These ideas do not exist as concrete things in the world - they must be made incarnate by the actions of real people.

When I am teaching writing to my students, I stress that their details must match their big, abstract ideas. If they don't, their writing becomes nonsensical. "The class was so boring. We set off fireworks indoors during one of the labs." "The food in the cafeteria was awful. I had a hot, golden brown grilled cheese with a hot cup of tomato soup." If the concrete details we use in our writing don't match our big ideas, readers get confused and feel as if we're bad writers.

In life, our abstract big ideas and the details of our lives that make those abstractions incarnate should probably match up. We may think our lives represent compassion, selflessness, joy, and generosity, when in fact, anyone taking a moment to look at our actions would realize that our actions display resentment, jealousy, selfishness, moodiness, and greed personified. It is fairly easy to stop for a moment and ask ourselves what human quality we are incarnating at a given moment or on a given day. But we probably don't do it often enough.

I also tell my writing students this: be sure your big ideas are worth talking about, are worth creating details about. If you have great details in support of some dreadful abstraction,  the end result is this: you might make bad stuff look attractive. Writing - all use of words, in fact - has a dark side. If I am arguing for exclusion, for hatred, for greed - I'd say there's a pretty good chance you are arguing for the wrong side.

Whatever you think of the theological idea of incarnation, Jesus must have incarnated some enormously powerful abstract ideas - and lived them out every day, right up to and including his death. Those actions, and those ideas, resonate to this very day.

What are we incarnating in our actions every day? It is easy to say we stand for love, truth, and hope, and yet actually embody hatred, falsehood, and despair in our words and deeds.

I am __________ incarnate.

I need to start asking myself every day: what am I filling that blank with?