Good morning…
“Listen to your life,” says Fredrick Buechner, writer, preacher, theologian. “See it for the fathomless mystery it is…touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.” (Listening To Your Life, 1)
We just had a conversation that did not go well. It ended in silent separation, feelings hurt. Now we endure a stand off of differing perspectives, with self protective walls built high and hard. “If all moments are key moments, what is the holy and hidden heart of this present conflict, LORD?” I prayerfully sit, separate, stilled, silent.
I sense an answer forming. We are scared. At our core, we are afraid of the mystery of not knowing, the confusion of being unable to see ahead, the powerless inability to make our dreams come true. We are just trying to “help” the situation, but our helping styles clash and our controlling attempts fail.
A wise friend recently asked, “If there was a continuum with ‘helper’ on one end and ‘witness’ on the other, where would you stand?” My greatest sin is trying to harness my own ability to “help,” to push quickly forward into something, anything. Away from the discomfort of not knowing, away from our chaotic confusion, away from this pitiful powerlessness. “I am trying to play ‘helper’,” I now confess.
My peaceful strength grows as I lean back to “witness” God’s healing power, God’s quiet movement, God’s developing dreams. To listen to my life, I see and I touch, I taste and I smell my way to the holy and hidden heart of life’s fathomless mystery, without trying to fix it or change it, without taking control or trying to “help.”
Life itself is grace. Grace means a simple, elegance of movement. God’s free and unmerited favor. Deliverance from conflict through daily divine guidance. This moment is a key moment: this conflict is not about me and anyone else, it is about God whispering into my surrendered state: “Trust Me. Wait. Watch. Wonder. Witness My higher ways taking form in your life.”
…as the scripture says,
“What no one ever saw or heard,
what no one ever thought could happen,
is the very thing God prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9, AMP).
…Sue…
