Pause.
Take a moment. Take a moment to think about someone who is in your life or who has been in your life. Someone whose presence within the day just made the day better. Moments spent together gleamed forth with simple and yet complete seconds. Times spent with laughter. Times spent in quiet. Times just looking at one another and being happy.
Moments and people like this are liken unto a glass of the most amazing water that satisfy the thirst of the soul. In the shared presence, the partakers are left stronger... they are left better than if they had not been together. The conversation or silence or activity isn't necessarily that which mattered. The shared space.. the shared time, the shared smile or gentle touch.. simply and profoundly.. Presence. Joy. Strength.
The one aspect of this journey that I have found emerge is the reality that more and more I have realized that I have spout off concepts without in depth investigation. I have talked about things and while I put the hours into study, it has been such a Western approach. I didn't pause and just sit with the reality. What am I talking about?
This morning I was awoke and it was early.
I could sense what I know to be the presence of the Lord in my room. I laid still and settled myself into moment.
"Breathe."
"Breathe, pause... linger."
Those are words that seemingly fill my days now so I touched them again and took in air. "It's sweeter."
And I paused further... wanting to receive the reality of what was being expressed.
"With you, when we share presence... when you are aware of presence, My presence. It's sweeter. Awareness of time together, when you are aware of Me, it is sweeter." I sat with the heart of the Lord being expressed upon my person. I quieted myself at the reality that as a Christian I can speak of the Lover of my soul. But do I pause to really understand that concept? Do I pause to really touch that reality?
But it wasn't going to stop there.
"My joy will be your strength. What is joy?"
It wasn't rhetorical.
He wanted me to breathe, pause and linger over the reality of joy. Not as I would make it but as it exists. As it is...
My thoughts went towards people now. My thoughts moved away from ethereal concept into earthy and
beautiful reality. Into my mind's eye entered pictures of people and places. Places where I touch joy. Relationships that infuse joy into my life.
A rich smile crossed my face. A deep satisfaction filled out my body as I remembered. A deep strength. Within remembrance, within gratitude, my soul was satisfied. I could touch and understand very practically that which He was leading me towards and the beauty of it saturated into the depths of my bones. I could feel strength, not born of this world but born of Him, born of other... born within the unseen but that makes its way into the tangible realities if we let it...
So have you ever heard two people say the same thing. Let's take the statement, "The joy of the Lord is my strength." What if that is all I said? And what if I said, "People, the joy of the Lord is your strength. Go be strong in the joy of the Lord." I don't know about you. But even though I can sense the truth in that statement, it lacks. It doesn't empower. What does that mean? Practically. Down deep into the earth, into the soil of my life.. what does that mean? What can that look like? Instead of some religious command, that might even end up leaving me feel condemned because I lack understanding of how to even do that; instead of those words, are there others that could actually feed my soul and propel me towards such joy?
I believe there are...
If we dwell with what the reality of joy is... if we pause and linger over the idea of what strength is really, not just conceptually. What does it mean to feel and touch joy? What is strength?
Then again pictures of times shared with different individuals, times spent in different places... I see their faces, I think of their voices, I remember the light shared that emanated forth from their lives and the joy I touch simply even at the remembrance of being in their presence does fill and feed my soul. That is the joy. A deep joy. A deep joy that completes. A joy that penetrates and saturates. A joy that satisfies. That is the joy that leaves strength in the depths of one's bones, that creates into one's being a resiliency and completeness that just makes one smile. That is joy. That is strength.
If brought into those places through slow and thoughtful and deliberate remembrances, one can breathe joy in and feel it takes its course within body, soul and spirit. Into that place and into those places strength is born forth and it is immense and beautiful.
The two approaches are the difference between religion and spirit. The truth is that joy is a force. Joy, not always and actually very rarely ecstatic experience, but simple and concrete, earthy joy... is my food. It is found in the presence of my husband. It is found in the presence of my children. It is found in the presence of people who I cross paths with and have crossed paths with... It is found in abundance if I pause, if I linger.. it most generously shares its strength. Because that is what joy does.
No comments:
Post a Comment