Life is all about relationships with special people: mother, father, wife, husband, son, daughter, grandchild, relatives, and friends. Think about how these relationships give meaning and purpose to your life and make you feel all warm and loved. All of these relationships thrive on kindness. We remember people who are kind to us. This book, A Relational Trinity of Kindness, is about special relationships with God revealed in Jesus and present in our lives with spiritual transforming love energies. These relationships are spoken of in the Bible in many mysterious and awe inspiring ways.
You might be feeling, "I understand relationships, but why use the word Trinity?" Soon after the Bible was written church leaders coined the non-biblical word, trinity, as a way of explaining special relationships with God. It is questionable, however, whether the word has served the church well or whether it has created confusion and misunderstanding. This book is a doctrine of the trinity that seeks fresh language to mark a new path through this maze. From my experience I have found that the word, kindness, is the best word to use for understanding these special relational ways of God. I learned that God is kind, first from the way my parents related to me and then from the gentle teachings and actions of Jesus found in the Gospels of the New Testament. In my seminary graduate studies I translated from Greek each of the Gospels, holding each word of the tender teachings of Jesus in my hands and heart. Many of those key words for kindness are treated in chapter two of this book. These Spirit inspired words have always spoken to me and encouraged me to be a better person.
In making kindness my hermeneutic for interpreting the trinity and all the scriptures, some may feel that I am packing too much meaning in this one word, kindness. In my linguistic studies I have found that words do not have meaning, they have usage. Context determines how a word is used and what its meaning should be. For example, the word, bank, has many usages. If I say that I am taking a check to the bank, it has a clear meaning by the context in which I use it. If I say that he is fishing on the river bank, bank has a different meaning. If I say she made a perfect bank shot, bank has another usage and meaning. Please hold this idea that words have usage in your memory bank as you read this book!