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speak friend and enter
воскресенье, октября 23, 2005
Stayers and Visitors - Back in Spore for a Bit More
"The essential meaning of exile is that we are where we don't want to be. We are separated from home. We are forced to be away from that which is most congenial to us... dislocation - out of joint. But this very strangeness can open up a new reality to us: "I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, says the LORD." " (excerpt from Run With the Horses, Eugene H. Peterson, pp. 145-156, InterVarsity Press, 1983)
It goes round and round. I'm finding Joy in the journey and my heart's full, but a tinge of longing fills the gaps. Been barely back a week and seems like its been a full month; I'm almost ready to scoot off again.
Things look different coming back to this familiarity, approaching with new perspectives of hope and joy. But somehow gradually, a week or two later, the little things (sms, people, deadlines etc, even waiting for the bus) begin to (inperceptibly and inconspicuously) whittle away the time, peace, hope, joy - that sense of God-wardness; and after a while, many of us settle for living at subsistence level, hand to mouth. Where's that victorious, faith-based living? We become excessively scrupulous: counting the costs in everything, exalting practicality beyond virtue. We slowly lose that God-awareness, forgetting He surprises us with His generosity and goodness, that He promises to fill our cups till overflowing; not just to have full lives but to abundance - literally packed bursting to the brim and overflowing. He's the Lord of the More-than-Enough. Sadly, its quite quite easy to get sucked down, scrape out our lives thinly, cobbling together snatches of existence. (I'm not exactly disappointed/disillusioned/depressed... just putting down an observation from this last week.)
In some sense, being happy to move off again could be escapism. But then, I realize it'll be the same everywhere/anywhere. Its not really about the environment, but about our hearts. Its about being content with God as our eternal refuge.
When we're merely visiting other environs, we have that boldness to start afresh, aware that that the experience is just temporal. Tabula Rasa. Now or never. Things come into perspective and we see the big picture - God's big picture and His heartbeat for people. Perhaps it is this attitude, this awareness, that needs to spill over when we return to 'home'. That, is a struggle though. It tends to be diluted at home simply because things are familiar, the disappointments and flaws are familiar... so familiar that somehow they seem impossible to mend. Perhaps we like our wounds. Things seemed to have always been like this. Simply because its familiar, we do not desire healing.
Familiarity breeds contempt.
Jeremiah 29: 4-14: Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters... seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your refuge... For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me; when you seel with all your heart, I wil be found by you, says the LORD.
Jeremiah 29 reminds us we're on exile, and we're here to stay, not some temporal inconsequenticality. The struggle is how we can bring that courage and action into the apparently meaninglessness of everyday. When we have that 'alien perspective', we naturally prioritise the big things. Yet, we've still to contend with the next 60 years or so of existence here, and not settle for the easier way out.
"The essential meaning of exile is that we are where we don't want to be. We are separated from home. We are forced to be away from that which is most congenial to us... dislocation - out of joint. But this very strangeness can open up a new reality to us: "I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, says the LORD." " (excerpt from Run With the Horses, Eugene H. Peterson, pp. 145-156, InterVarsity Press, 1983)
It goes round and round. I'm finding Joy in the journey and my heart's full, but a tinge of longing fills the gaps. Been barely back a week and seems like its been a full month; I'm almost ready to scoot off again.
Things look different coming back to this familiarity, approaching with new perspectives of hope and joy. But somehow gradually, a week or two later, the little things (sms, people, deadlines etc, even waiting for the bus) begin to (inperceptibly and inconspicuously) whittle away the time, peace, hope, joy - that sense of God-wardness; and after a while, many of us settle for living at subsistence level, hand to mouth. Where's that victorious, faith-based living? We become excessively scrupulous: counting the costs in everything, exalting practicality beyond virtue. We slowly lose that God-awareness, forgetting He surprises us with His generosity and goodness, that He promises to fill our cups till overflowing; not just to have full lives but to abundance - literally packed bursting to the brim and overflowing. He's the Lord of the More-than-Enough. Sadly, its quite quite easy to get sucked down, scrape out our lives thinly, cobbling together snatches of existence. (I'm not exactly disappointed/disillusioned/depressed... just putting down an observation from this last week.)
In some sense, being happy to move off again could be escapism. But then, I realize it'll be the same everywhere/anywhere. Its not really about the environment, but about our hearts. Its about being content with God as our eternal refuge.
When we're merely visiting other environs, we have that boldness to start afresh, aware that that the experience is just temporal. Tabula Rasa. Now or never. Things come into perspective and we see the big picture - God's big picture and His heartbeat for people. Perhaps it is this attitude, this awareness, that needs to spill over when we return to 'home'. That, is a struggle though. It tends to be diluted at home simply because things are familiar, the disappointments and flaws are familiar... so familiar that somehow they seem impossible to mend. Perhaps we like our wounds. Things seemed to have always been like this. Simply because its familiar, we do not desire healing.
Familiarity breeds contempt.
Jeremiah 29: 4-14: Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters... seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your refuge... For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me; when you seel with all your heart, I wil be found by you, says the LORD.
Jeremiah 29 reminds us we're on exile, and we're here to stay, not some temporal inconsequenticality. The struggle is how we can bring that courage and action into the apparently meaninglessness of everyday. When we have that 'alien perspective', we naturally prioritise the big things. Yet, we've still to contend with the next 60 years or so of existence here, and not settle for the easier way out.
