riday, May 27, 2022
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Visions of sugarplums danced in their heads
There are times when I let my mind go. Whatever thoughts come in can go where they want -I try not to control them. Often this sounds like jibberish in my head. I fear this might lead me away from my Self and into an undefined wilderness. I sometimes wonder, if I venture out too far, whether I can get back to the self I call David.
On the other hand, this is how visions happen too.
One night while Paul was in Corinth, the Lord said to him in a vision, “Do not be afraid. Go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you. No one will attack and harm you, for I have many people in this city.”
Paul accepted what God told him. Would I have been able to accept it? How much control would I have demanded from God? Could I let him run the show, when it came to communicating with me? Paul was not exactly a poet, and I don’t think he valued what these days we call his stream of consciousness. But he heard God and he believed him and he did what God told him to do.
Paul settled in Corinth for a year and a half, and he taught the word of God among them.
God kept his word. Potential persecutions were foiled; the Roman magistrate Gallio was sympathetic to Paul.
Paul remained for quite some time, and after saying farewell to the brothers he sailed for Syria, together with Priscilla and Aquila.
Jesus invites his disciples into the Prayer Room but on his terms. There will be visions, there will be joy, but first there must be anguish and pain. Just as what happens to a mother in childbirth, he says. This is another situation where your mind kind of turns to mush. No way can you control your thoughts or your feelings or your pain. But then the baby is born, and joy fills your heart, fills it absolutely, without question, for what seems like forever.
Now you are in anguish, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice. No one will take your joy away from you. On that day you will not question me about anything.
Mothers soon have to change diapers, and don’t get much sleep for a few months, and their joy might fade. But not us, not after the moment Jesus describes. Visions will not be unusual; my mind will not be my own, it will belong to its Maker, and God will fill it with visions dancing in my head … of sugarplums, of babies, of healed men and women laughing and leaping and praising God, and I see that I am among them. No need to hold back or hold on. Take any path, and it will circle around like the labyrinth, and then after your adventure you will suddenly be home again. There is no fear in love.
God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy; the Lord, amid trumpet blasts. Sing praise to God, sing praise; sing praise to your king, sing praise. God is king of all the earth.
(Acts 18, Psalm 47, Luke 24, John 16)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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