Good morning…
“I just read a beautiful essay on the need to slow down in the face of crisis,” my friend emailed me yesterday, “because it’s not possible to do ‘drive-by contemplation’ — or ‘drive-by loving.’ I will send you this message…..because I know you will resonate with that phrase ‘drive-by loving.’ No such thing, either, as ‘drive-by prayer.’”
“Drive-by contemplation.” “Drive-by loving.” “Drive-by prayer.” There are no such things. We cannot meet deep-seated needs by quickly “driving-by.” To be a non-anxious presence in this chaotic world, we need to slow down. Quietly connect. Linger with the raw experiences of life. “Slow down. Take a deep breath. What’s the hurry? Why wear yourself out? Just what are you after anyway?” (Jeremiah 2:25a, MSG).
My friend sent me the essay, which in part shares a quote from Barbara A. Holmes: “In order to love, you have to slow down. There’s no such thing as “drive-by loving.” You have to give attention to the object, to the person, of your love. There has to be reciprocity and mutuality. It is giving ourselves over, letting go so that something else can do the loving through us and for us, because we’re not capable of it.”
We are incapable. We need to slow down in the face of crisis. Let go. Give ourselves over, surrendered. The great Someone else yearns to do the contemplating, the loving, the praying through us and for us. We don’t know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself speaks to God for us. He begs God for us, speaking to him with feelings too deep for words. God already knows our deepest thoughts. And he understands what the Spirit is saying, because the Spirit speaks for his people in the way that agrees with what God wants (Romans 8:26b-27, ERV).
In the face of crisis, might we slow down?
Let go.
Give over.
Allow God’s Spirit to contemplate, to love, to pray through us and for us.
…Sue…
