|
Daphne Rose Kingma, poet, psychotherapist, teacher of relationships, tells, in "The Atmosphere of Love," of an experience in Hawaii. Daphne was weary from a huge fire in her house. She was lying on the beach. She did not want to have conversation with anyone. A little girl with a pinwheel came to her. The little girl asked, "Can I sing you a song?" The girl sang a beautiful song about friendship. The final line was, "So I'm singing you this song, and I want to be your friend, will you be my friend, too?"
Daphne said, regarding this encounter:
It was an absolutely exquisite gift. I will never see her again, I don't know her name, but we had an experience of deep connectedness and true love in that moment on the beach. There are hundreds of these moments in life that are so tiny that they don't register on this chart that we've all built about what love is. We think love has to look a certain way, have a certain outcome. But we're constantly gifted with such moments, experiences that are just breathtaking in their purity and their absolutely consecrated perfection.
Recently, I stood in an ICU and spoke to a dear woman from one of the churches I serve as pastor. I stayed with her only about five minutes, after an over-hour drive. The trip came after a morning conference and two weeks of intensive work. I had not had adequate time off for rest and could feel the deep weariness. And, there I stood, before another long day facing me of three Worship services on Sunday. I was exhausted from it all and so much wanted to relax and forget work and ministry for even a short time. I thought, "These minutes is what being a pastor is all about. Just these few minutes are filled with meaning for someone who needs this attention from her pastor. It can mean so much." I let the lady, as she lay in her neck brace and reclining on her bed, know that I would not remain longer, seeing she needed her rest. She smiled. I told her I wanted to pray with her before I left. She agreed. I asked her could I hold one of her hands. She said, "Yes." I took one of her aged hands, held it lightly, and we shared prayer together. I left and returned home, thankful for a few minutes to smile with and hold her hand, again so thankful to be a pastor and renewed in body and mind from the sharing together in Christ, in Love.
|
|
It is in simple transactions of love that the ordinary is seen to be sublime and God is known: as a ray of the Sun is found to be waiting for fellowship with me in the other, and God waits, as that ray of the Sun in me, to have fellowship with that other. In this, we find true love in the Sun, eterally generated by the Father of Lights.
Give me to recognize that all persons come from One, and therefore all are my members, brothers and sisters, as a tree with its branches; that I am to love all of them as You, O dear God, loved and still love us with the one love in Christ Jesus from the foundation of the world...."
*Prayer by Jacob Boehme, The Way to Christ, in "The Classics of Western Spirituality"
*OneLife writings are offered by Brian K. Wilcox, a United Methodist pastor serving in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. He writes in the spirit of John Wesley's focus on the priority of inner experience of the Triune God; scriptural holiness; ongoing sanctification; the goal of Christian perfection (or, wholeness). Brian seeks to integrate the best of the contemplative teachings of Christianity East and West, from the patristic Church to the present. Brian lives a vowed contemplative life with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis, in North Florida. OneLife writings are for anyone seeking to live and share love, joy, and peace in the world and in devotion to God as she or he best understands God.
*Brian's book An Ache for Union, a book of poems on mystical union with God through love, can be ordered through major on-line bookdealers.
The Grace of Christ be with All!
|
