Come into the Clearing
Written on March 10, 2016
I just lost use of my phone! It fell and broke. And this happened while on vacation. The insides were coming out, so it is without resuscitation via two Verizon reps. This might disturb a whole society similarly. For me this means the temporary loss of my watch/clock, weather/news update, and permanent loss of calendar of scheduled events, and contact list years in compiling. But the most withdrawal is over the loss of momentary access right at my fingertips to ones near and far. (With all this dependence, it seems laughable it was merely a basic phone.)
“It used to be for awhile that the river flowed right to my door. Making me just a little too free, but now the river doesn’t seem to stop here anymore” – Carly Simon.
I am sorry, but the first day without the phone carried a morose feeling. I was crimped. Nothing in my pocket. Nothing to reach to. Nothing to check. Unavailable. Inaccessible. In isolation.
Several friends helped me clarify this opportunity and to rise to what can be a revolutionary moment.
Am I truly Present? Ever? 100% to God, to people? The first and greatest Commandment speaks to ALL. All my mind, all my soul, all my strength. Is “all” ever experienced while I reach, I check…
In this recess there is profound speaking, Luke 7:31: “To what then should I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 7:32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to one another,
‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance;
we wailed in mourning, yet you did not weep.’ ”
When a full dance or a full mourning is deserved, my inattentiveness cuts off the edge of dancing OR wailing and leaves me always muddled in the middle.
Can I ever come out into the clearing with this continual distraction?
Song of Solomon 6 describes someone who has come into the clearing. She is fully beholding and others are asking to follow her gaze. She is fully engaged. She is dynamic. The others say: ”Tell us, that we may seek him with you (v 1).”
We would want that.
By verse 5, it is full-fledged engagement. In the fully-present clearing (I believe this can be where we can stand and say straight to Him: “Jesus, You are the Son of God” [see 1 John 4:15]) He says to her: “Turn away your eyes from Me, for they overwhelm Me.”
This intensity is for being Present, fully present. Isn’t this more than a suggestion or momentary invitation to step into the clearing?
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