Too Soon Old

Old things . . . wonderful things, used things . . . wonderfully used up things . . .

Van Gough's painting of old shoes reminds me that too soon my life will draw to its close. The adventure will end, the party will be over. It would be good to know that this wee alotment of time has been well used, even then used up - by full and deep relationships, family, through adventures, in honest observation and full exploration.

There is a time for everything under the sun, allegedly wrote King Solomon, the Hebrew Qoholeth (preacher). A time to die . . . All things eventually pass - the best relationships, adventures, the trip, the job - as we more fully enter into the 'new' God has for us.

Some lives are wonderfully aged by life - worn out by love and care, by tragedy and disappointment. Yet there are some folk, as Tony Compolo puts it - who 'tip-toe through life, so that they may arrive safely at Death's door.' He invites us to savor, to quest, to risk everything - for true Love and for true Life's sake.

To get in on it now is certainly one of the great wonders and mysteries God presents to us. You and I can choose to lay aside smaller things and lesser loyalties to seek that Life - in seeking Him with all our heart. May we do that more, daily.

O! - to live to the full, beginning in the here and now to enter the greater Real of God's Presence and welcome: to experience the unending Life He intends for us - that Jesus called 'Abundant.'

Beauty

Beauty will save the world. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

"All around us God's creation shouts of his beauty and his goodness. The silhouette of lace on a barren tree draped with ice, the rays of sun streaming forth from a billowing cloud, the sound of a brook trickling over smooth stones, the form of a woman's body, and the face of a child anticipating the arrival of the ice cream truck all speak of God's good heart if we will have but the eyes to see. The coming of spring after a hard winter is almost too glorious for a soul to bear. God's beauty is lavished on the world . . .

"Beauty is a quality of the soul that expresses itself in the visible world. You can see it. You can touch it. You are drawn to it. Beauty illuminates. Its essence, says Thomas Aquinas, is its 'luminosity.' It is bound up with the immortal. Beauty flows from a heart that is alive."

-from Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge

Moving On

"Instead of long-term commitment, the postmodern self just moves on - to the next next show, to the next relationship."

- Walsh and Middleton, 'Truth is Stranger Than It Used to Be

The Wonder of Created Things

         The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
            It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
            It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
         Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
         Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
            And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
            And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
         Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

         And for all this, nature is never spent;
            There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
         And though the last lights off the black West went
            Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs -
         Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
            World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
                                                             - Gerard Manley Hopkins

Sometimes I sing Frederick Atkinson's hymn, pray the hymn - and partially, mostly I suppose, I mean it.

Spirit of God, descend upon my heart
Wean it from earth, through all its pulses move
Stoop to my weakness, mighty as Thou art
And help me love Thee, as I ought to love. 

Wean my heart from earth, I pray.

There is a kind of 'love of the world' that the Scriptures forbid - that world that is 'too much with us.' There is another 'love of the world' which is simply a deep appreciation for the Creation, for what God has made and declared to be 'good' - an appreciation in this world of the good things and the good of things, the stuff of life, health, family, friendships, nature's beauty and bounty - that is perfectly right, enjoined really - a world that we should embrace.

But even the blest things of that 'good earth' are gradually removed from us - or us from them.

Wean me from earth . . .

Whether I mean it or not, or could it stop it or not - God takes me up on my prayer. He weans me from earth - takes away the things, the people I think I could not possibly do without. He gradually removes - youth, earthly anticipations and dreams, at some point our job, spouse, family members and dear ones, our friend(s) - and eventually sooner or later our bodily vigour, beauty, health and strength. And lastly, he takes our earthly life.

I will die; this may be the year. I really ought to face up to that.

But you can't threaten a Christian with Heaven - and God takes away that He may give back again, in greater measure - in new (and perhaps even better?) shapes and forms - a new Life, a new World - a new Heaven and a new Earth. Maybe He'll say: Here's a planet or two to be explored, developed - go ahead: knock yourself out. Enjoy !

Mostly I don't like this weaning process. Mostly it hurts. It takes a lot of faith and hope that eventually, ultimately the hurting will heal. Or maybe just enough faith that my heart can hold fast in these days to that Deep Heart of the universe who became what I am that I might become what He is.

2 Corinthians 8:9

You know the grace of the Lord Jesus, how that though He was rich He became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich.

Psalm 31

1 My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.
2 But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and forevermore.

Contemplation

What lies ahead for the New Year? God only knows. I stand at the gate of the year as recently I stood musing at the tomb of St. John in
ancient Ephesus. I'm drawn to the contemplative side of things but 
life, the world, calls for action too - Holy Spirited action. Beyond
thinking about it, once shown comes the call to do - all, of course, out
of the primary call 'to be' as one of God's little ones. 

Safer Than a Known Way

The Gate of the Year

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year
'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.'
And he replied, 'Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!'

So I went forth and finding the Hand of God
Trod gladly into the night
He led me towards the hills
And the breaking of day in the lone east.

So heart be still!
What need our human life to know
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife of things

Both high and low,
God hideth his intention."

 
This poem of by Minnie Haskins 1908 was a favorite of the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The opening four lines were used by her husband, King George VI, to open his Christmas address to the nation in 1939, just a few months after the start of World War II.