Sweet
I began the day, as I sometimes do, in a bit of a funk, a foul mood, a brooding sense that things in the world--correct that--in me, are not quite right, and beyond that, may never be. Call it what you will, it is a mood that I am not unfamiliar with, and though it grows tiresome, it does not hold the longterm dark it once did.
That being said, I spent time in prayer anyway, complaining to God about my mood. And as the time went on, the Holy Spirit went to work on me, somehow restoring a balance inside, a knowledge that emotional mood is a bit like the weather...it comes, it goes, and while we may prefer one kind of weather to another (and indeed, to be without the sun for long will affect us whether we like the rain or not), the world neither stops or waits for rain, clouds, hail, or storm. Thankfully, with the help of the Spirit (or perhaps only because of the Spirit) sun came out this morning, for which I was glad. But frankly, I've learned not to take too much stock in that either.
But the time of prayer was sweet, which is a way of putting it that harkens back to old-time religion, and I even came out of my time singing the old song "Sweet Hour of Prayer." Odd, because "sweet" in relation to prayer sounds anything but post-modern authentic. It's as if the notion of "sweet" is a broken down table topped with Battenberg Lace, not because the lace is loved but because its best use is to impress. "Sweet?" But that was the term that came to mind, and I suppose, given the fact that I wouldn't be spending the rest of the morning with the foul mood, I took whatever the Spirit had to give.
But it came to me at the end of the time that each moment of the day could be holy, if I only sought it. Sought to hold in the mind that each day, each moment is an Eden still, the work of tilling and keeping gardens still to be done with grace, with compassion, with firm confidence in the notion that God has shared his kingdom-making life with us, investing us with creativity that is no sham, but real, dense, and impacting for generations to come.
So letting the dog out, making the turkey and ham sandwiches for the kids, getting the teeth cleaned, making the revisions in the book and the play, talking business and life with my friend over coffee, listening to actors speak the words that I dreamed up here at the computer, deciphering one more time this financial life of mine...all of it infused with Presence, the Holy Spirit urging me on, nudging this way and that, weaving in the world his own purposes, his own will, which is his love.
Sweet.
How wide, and long, and high, and deep, is the love of Christ...
7:42:14 AM
