I’ll never forget my first encounter with civil rights icon Vincent Harding. I’m helping organize a conference and Dr. Harding was up next as our featured speaker. It was my role to welcome him, direct him to the stage, and introduce him. As he walked in the door of the building, we made our acquaintance. I was much taller than him so he gently pulled my arm down so we could meet at eye level. Still holding my arm, not sternly but affectionately, he just stood there and said, “Ryan, tell me about yourself.”
I said, “Well, Mr. Harding, I’d love to spend time with you after the session, but…”
He interrupted, “Ryan, don’t worry. Tell me who you are. Are you married? Do you have children? Share with me.”
An invitation to waste time. To set my urgent agenda to the side and stand there with Presence.
The Living Presence came and stood there, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”
These are words from 1 Samuel 3: 10.
The story teller said that in those days a word from the Living Presence was rare and no one had much vision for God’s heart.
God came and just stood there.
Not fixing anything. Just standing there beckoning for nearness, calling for relationship. An encounter with divine intimacy.
It’s the same theme at the very beginning of the creation poetry in Genesis, the earth was formless and void, darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
The deep waters was ancient symbolism for chaos. Do we know what chaos feels like? And the word hover in the original language? Not like the over-bearing mother imagery of hover, but instead a nurturing compassionate presence. Just standing there inviting nearness and companionship.
Apparently, this is God's way and apparently it becomes more poignant the more chaotic and distant things feel.
Wasting time like this feels inefficient.
Inefficient. Unproductive. Two words introduced into our language during the industrial revolution. Words that describe machinery not human relationship.
Thank God for saints like Vincent Harding.
And Fred Rogers.
Mr. Rogers Neighborhood pulled me in as a child. The miracle of tying shoes, feeding gold fish, and playing with puppets. He just stood there paying attention to the vulnerable heart of a child. To my heart.
At some point, that all became so silly, kinda stupid, beneath me, a colossal waste of time.
And this is the tragedy. The real chaos begins to set in when wasting time in relational connection becomes beneath us.
I believe right now, these times, qualify as chaos. As a time when the word of the Living Presence feels rare. The pavement beneath our feet is as uneven and unstable as ever.
So, what if now is the moment to re-learn how to tie our shoes and feed the gold fish. Maybe, now is the time to allow yourself to be pulled further down to eye level. And just stand there wasting time recognizing that the One who beckons is already hanging there, standing there, hovering, calling for your sacred companionship.
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