Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Being Christian means Being A Detective

A divinity shapes our means and ends. Consider our prayers, consider our jokes, consider our anecdotes. Being good occurs in spite of our efforts.

Each day there are many reasons to feel disappointment, rejection. Each life contains a riddle, each life becomes a detective story. The activities provide clues and red herrings; we are both reader and actor. Our interest in our lives rises and lowers irregularly. We encounter false pretenses, falsehoods, false teeth. Life teaches us to be a special type of sleuth seeking goodness, holiness, kindness. We employ all types of prayers and reflections to get by, to survive. Many unsolved mysteries capture our attention; sometimes we seek solutions which baffle the police, crime reporters, reality television producers, and actors. DNA and forensic evidence are great for small talk. Fingerprints and footprints recall the carelessness and energy of childhood. Bloodstains and wine stains and food stains indicate accidents. In life questions can be satisfactorily answered, or left unanswered. In life every question should not be answered. A library contains books. A church encourages prayer, reflection. Umbrellas work in certain types of rain. Restaurants contain tables, chairs, plates, and flatware. The adventure of life waits for what we do with different facts within our brain. How commonplace life for each of us begins! How wonderful the great things we notice each day! How wonderful remembering to praise God, remembering to offer thanks to God feels! Each day we exist within a wondrous world of unsensational activities of tinted by a quiet extraordinary glimmer of hope, shimmer of faith.

The city provides many places for hope, many places for fear. Some days our feet carry us to get salad when our head and stomach want greasy french fries, greasy hamburgers. Meals often reveal something about men, reveal their happiness, their loneliness. Meals start quiet, start with reverent tones and become boisterous affairs. Splendid meals arrive on the wings of hope. Conversation leads to special helpings of faith, of hope, of love. Conversation begins with silence, alternates between monologue and dialogue. Words provide moving pictures of sacrifice, salvation, love, eternal life. Words provide a glimpse of the intimacy of God’s grace, grandeur, and power. Surprise awaits us. Stillness arrives allowing the splendor of being Christian to be seen, to be felt.



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