Good morning…
As her migraines turned into debilitating vertigo, she was held home, laid low, centered down for weeks. Finally on Friday she returned to class in our living room. Because focussing on small print on the page made her condition worse, she had not read a word of our book for the semester, Richard Rohr’s Falling Upward. She came to be with us, to soak in our soulful discussion, and to share from her heart the wisdom stirring inside.
“Dear Sue,” she then wrote to me after Sunday’s blog post. “Your message this morning spoke to me in so many ways. First, it was the first one I have been able to read and enjoy in way too long. My vertigo and migraines are improving! Secondly, coming into your living room on Friday brought me back to God’s table and the feelings of love and faith I love and desire. Thirdly, I made it to our contemporary Rock Star church service today. The music filled my soul and spoke to my heart. The lay leader who spoke today talked about John Wesley’s design for Methodists and how we need a small group/table of people to rely upon. To end my morning, my family went to brunch together after church. We ended up having the most wonderful time together and even spent time decorating pumpkins together at a table.”
She concluded: “A table can be so many different things, joining so many small but significant parts of our lives, and I’m just so blessed to have had all of this brought to my table this morning. Thank you for welcoming me to come to your table Friday mornings and to feast daily with God through our blog.”
I replied: “Wow. What a joy. You are able to begin reading again. As your life gradually gets back to normal, I love that God is growing gratitude within you for “small but significant” blessings. It was so wonderful to see you on Friday, to have your wise voice blend with the insights of others. Though you have not read a word of Falling Upward, it is like God is giving you a personal tutorial on the book’s life-changing lessons, teaching you from the inside out what it means to free fall into the unconditional love of God, before allowing the Spirit to gradually lift you higher than you ever thought possible.”
I concluded: “God is using a difficult medical condition you would never choose to coax you into seeing your everyday life with new, thankful eyes. Amazing! If the Spirit moves, might I craft a blog post from our emails to show how our unchosen circumstances can be saturated with God’s healing power?”
As she wrote back to give me permission to share, I thought of a beloved saying I learned long ago. “Just think how happy you would be if you lost everything you love right now . . . then slowly gained it all back.”
Jesus said: “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom—you know how it works. But to those who can’t see it yet, everything comes in stories, creating readiness, nudging them toward receptive insight” (Mark 4:11, MSG).
…Sue…
