How ABOUT That!
Therefore, Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down; and it shall be, if He calls you, that you must say, 'Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.' So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 1 Samuel 3:9
Yesterday morning began with fumbling. Between the dark, thick buttons required to go through thin holes, fingers made less cooperative by cerebral palsy and less patience and strength for the process because of the remains of a recent cold, this tableau of struggle was set to be a miniature from the day ahead.
"But what if you get it?"
I figured the Holy Spirit had more important matters to speak to than buttonholes, but His whisper and accompanying insight were unmistakable. He prompted the realization, again, that I put a lot more intensity into unresolved struggles than resulting, if incremental, victories. If I was prepared to complain that two or three attempts at sliding a button through a hole what consigned yesterday to be one of THOSE Mondays, what would actual success indicate?
I needed a phrase of adequate but not overzealous celebration. I have to go looking for those, whereas the encoding for complaints is always at the ready.
"How ABOUT that!"
Really?! Where did that little exultation come from? The source was even more intriguing than the celebratory phrase, requiring a split second search through more than 40 years of my mental microfilm. The query was rewarding, as it led me to hear my as yet un-jaded self at about four issuing that declaration over a toy train my father and I were playing with together.
I'm not sure whether father or son under the phrase first. Whomever did, the other repeated it so quickly that it had a multigenerational reverberation that added to its impact once retrieved. I credit my father, and our mutual Germanic heritage, with passing on determination more than delight, cool appraisal more than momentary awe.
But there it was. The rest of the story. He gave me the words with which to color a moment with proper significance, and they were still within reach four decades later.
Samuel got much the same gift in 1 Samuel 3:9. There's a lot in the institutional memory he picked up from Eli he might have wished to leave behind. Yet, Eli gave him the words, the mental tools, if you will, with which to reserve a moment of rapture. How many times did he draw on that experience? When he kept himself in prayer all night for King Saul who had disappointed him, when he kept believing he would hear from the Lord, was it that formative moment that gave him the phrasing to persevere in asking the Lord to speak?
How much more multidimensional are the relationships that form us on re-examination? Disappointments and conflict within them are inevitable. Richard Rohr in Adam's Return says, in fact, the standard they provide for us to butt against are essential to maturing and developing a separate identity.
As we look back on the people who taught us perseverance, might they also have pointed out oases of passion that are still fertile and welcoming after all these years? Might shared memories be as invigorating as the resulting life lessons themselves?
How about THAT!
Yesterday morning began with fumbling. Between the dark, thick buttons required to go through thin holes, fingers made less cooperative by cerebral palsy and less patience and strength for the process because of the remains of a recent cold, this tableau of struggle was set to be a miniature from the day ahead.
"But what if you get it?"
I figured the Holy Spirit had more important matters to speak to than buttonholes, but His whisper and accompanying insight were unmistakable. He prompted the realization, again, that I put a lot more intensity into unresolved struggles than resulting, if incremental, victories. If I was prepared to complain that two or three attempts at sliding a button through a hole what consigned yesterday to be one of THOSE Mondays, what would actual success indicate?
I needed a phrase of adequate but not overzealous celebration. I have to go looking for those, whereas the encoding for complaints is always at the ready.
"How ABOUT that!"
Really?! Where did that little exultation come from? The source was even more intriguing than the celebratory phrase, requiring a split second search through more than 40 years of my mental microfilm. The query was rewarding, as it led me to hear my as yet un-jaded self at about four issuing that declaration over a toy train my father and I were playing with together.
I'm not sure whether father or son under the phrase first. Whomever did, the other repeated it so quickly that it had a multigenerational reverberation that added to its impact once retrieved. I credit my father, and our mutual Germanic heritage, with passing on determination more than delight, cool appraisal more than momentary awe.
But there it was. The rest of the story. He gave me the words with which to color a moment with proper significance, and they were still within reach four decades later.
Samuel got much the same gift in 1 Samuel 3:9. There's a lot in the institutional memory he picked up from Eli he might have wished to leave behind. Yet, Eli gave him the words, the mental tools, if you will, with which to reserve a moment of rapture. How many times did he draw on that experience? When he kept himself in prayer all night for King Saul who had disappointed him, when he kept believing he would hear from the Lord, was it that formative moment that gave him the phrasing to persevere in asking the Lord to speak?
How much more multidimensional are the relationships that form us on re-examination? Disappointments and conflict within them are inevitable. Richard Rohr in Adam's Return says, in fact, the standard they provide for us to butt against are essential to maturing and developing a separate identity.
As we look back on the people who taught us perseverance, might they also have pointed out oases of passion that are still fertile and welcoming after all these years? Might shared memories be as invigorating as the resulting life lessons themselves?
How about THAT!
Comments
Post a Comment