Fear vs Understanding

I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
where I left them, asleep like cattle.

Then what is afraid of me comes
and lives a while in my sight.
What it fears in me leaves me,
and the fear of me leaves it.
It sings, and I hear its song.

Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
and the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.

After days of labor,
mute in my consternations,
I hear my song at last,
and I sing it. As we sing,
the day turns, the trees move.

Wendell Berry

Scripture vs the Word of God

I've been thinking lately about what scripture is, and how its role in my life has changed over the past few years. I came across a passage about Jesus' twelve disciples in another book I'm reading (I'll get to it in a minute) that made me realize that my personal view of what scripture is is probably not unique, and there are likely plenty of other people out there that see it the same way I do. So I'm going to try to put this into words and maybe it will be a useful new perspective to someone out there.

First of all, the word "scripture" comes with a whole lot of baggage. Just read some of Daymon Smith's work, about how a thing can become its label in people's perception until what it actually is becomes largely irrelevant, and you will go cross-eyed trying to sort out labels from reality. When we call something "scripture", we generally mean it is the "word of God", which implies a particular degree of truthfulness, as well as an obligation on the part of its believers to honor its teachings in certain ways.