As people of faith, writes Thomas Kelly, we study and examine the past in order to plan for the all-important future.
What about the now?
(What Kelly calls "the Eternal Now")
"There come times when the Presence steals upon us, all unexpected not the product of agonized effort, and we live in a new dimension of life."
This is the experience we are waiting for in silent worship, waiting to be filled with a sense of the Presence of something greater than ourselves. But Kelly says this experience is open to us at all times of the week- in every moment of nowness.
"One walks in the world yet above the world as well, giddy with the height, the feather tread, with effortlessness and calm security, meeting the daily routine, yet never losing the sense of Presence."
If we look expressly for this experience when we gather in silence, I think we also expose ourselves to the possibility of experience this energizing "presence" each time we come into fellowship with others. It is generally through sharing the "now" with another that I feel that sense of giddiness that comes from spiritual connection.
I believe many seek this sensation of being lifted above the daily. "Our from the plain of daily living suddenly loom such plateaus..."
I access those plateaus through fellowship with others.
This week I read in the New York Times Book Review about a novel in which a woman spends countless hours of "online window-shipping and Wikipedia rabbit holes and gchatting." Rabbit hole is the perfect description of this feeling of emptiness and lack, (the total opposite of "Presence") that I feel when I lose myself to the internet. On the other hand, the reviewer says that there "is genuine tenderness and complication between Bev and Amy [the two main characters] and the novel's best moments occur when the pair are allowed to just sit and chat about their imperfect starter lives."
That is exactly what spiritual fellowship should be about! Sitting and talking about our imperfect attempts to live lives that go somewhere. God is in those conversations, in those shared moments, where he is not necessarily in the time spent solo online.
I think more people are interested in spiritual fellowship than know it. New meetings could meet a need to find staircases up to that plateau that we can't visualize when we're down on the plains of daily, individual living.
Here's to floating up to the plateau today!
What about the now?
(What Kelly calls "the Eternal Now")
"There come times when the Presence steals upon us, all unexpected not the product of agonized effort, and we live in a new dimension of life."
This is the experience we are waiting for in silent worship, waiting to be filled with a sense of the Presence of something greater than ourselves. But Kelly says this experience is open to us at all times of the week- in every moment of nowness.
"One walks in the world yet above the world as well, giddy with the height, the feather tread, with effortlessness and calm security, meeting the daily routine, yet never losing the sense of Presence."
If we look expressly for this experience when we gather in silence, I think we also expose ourselves to the possibility of experience this energizing "presence" each time we come into fellowship with others. It is generally through sharing the "now" with another that I feel that sense of giddiness that comes from spiritual connection.
I believe many seek this sensation of being lifted above the daily. "Our from the plain of daily living suddenly loom such plateaus..."
I access those plateaus through fellowship with others.
This week I read in the New York Times Book Review about a novel in which a woman spends countless hours of "online window-shipping and Wikipedia rabbit holes and gchatting." Rabbit hole is the perfect description of this feeling of emptiness and lack, (the total opposite of "Presence") that I feel when I lose myself to the internet. On the other hand, the reviewer says that there "is genuine tenderness and complication between Bev and Amy [the two main characters] and the novel's best moments occur when the pair are allowed to just sit and chat about their imperfect starter lives."That is exactly what spiritual fellowship should be about! Sitting and talking about our imperfect attempts to live lives that go somewhere. God is in those conversations, in those shared moments, where he is not necessarily in the time spent solo online.
I think more people are interested in spiritual fellowship than know it. New meetings could meet a need to find staircases up to that plateau that we can't visualize when we're down on the plains of daily, individual living.
Here's to floating up to the plateau today!
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