Fire!

Monday, September 18, 2023

(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)

Fire!

First of all, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.

I haven’t been in smoke like this. Hard boiled eggs never took this much work. We put a very flammable object on the hot, boiling egg burner, and set the pan with eggs on the cold burner. Then we forgot about it for twelve minutes, or rather until smoke filled our entire apartment, including the ceiling where smoke detectors began to burst with importance, just after we noticed the smoke ourselves.

This blinding, suffocating smoke required that we abandon the apartment, at least for a few minutes, until we could open windows and doors and find our window fans (2) and desk fan (1). Margaret stood precariously on our two-step ladder and pulled the smoke alarm down. At least now we know it works.

Our downstairs neighbors had just left. Our upstairs neighbor ran out on her balcony and asked, “Are you OK? Is there a fire?” No. But this was maybe the closest I’ve been to a fire in my lengthening life. And I know Jasper and Miles would have freaked out if they were here, but on the other hand, they would have loved it. They think they need a fire in their future, they want to be firemen, but they haven’t smelled the smoke yet, not like we did yesterday.

Hear the sound of my pleading, when I cry to you. Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard my prayer.

I thought how thankful I was for Margaret. We didn’t dwindle down into blaming each other. We did the work, we took a nap, we continued with our Sabbath evening. And I was so thankful for our neighbor. We don’t know her well, but she cared about us. I felt no condescension (she’s young, we’re not) from her at all. She went off to work, while we stayed home in our mostly retired way. She might tell a story on us at work. I hope so. We deserve that.

Ron Rolheiser talks about relationship, with others and with God, and how important it is for us to honest, good-humored, and expectant not of blame or recrimination, but of acceptance and love. Assume the best.

One of the things that characterizes mature friendship is a familiarity and intimacy that makes for a robust relationship rather than a fearful one. In a mature relationship there is no place for fearful piety or false reverence. Rather with a close friend we are bold because we know the other’s mind, fully trust the other, and are at a level of relationship where we are unafraid to ask for things, can be shamelessly self-disclosing, are given to playfulness and teasing, and are able to responsibly interpret the other’s mind. 

This intimacy doesn’t come often and doesn’t come easy. Can I discern who is right for me to befriend this way, and then put in the time it takes?  I need a friend like this. And even more, I need to see God the way He means himself to be seen. God does not intend for my relationship with God to be only what, Rolheiser, calls, “fearful and pious.”

According to John of the Cross, the deeper we move into a relationship with God and the more mature our faith becomes, the more bold we will become with God. Healthy religious fear and healthy piety manifest themselves in a relationship that is vigorous.  But fear easily masks itself as religious reverence. Piety can easily pass itself off as religious depth. Genuine intimacy unmasks both. With God, as with our best friends, a healthy relationship is characterized by lack of fear, ease, playfulness, and humor.

I settled down yesterday and watched football games. The smoke was gone. I worked on a new devotion book full of family stories. We watched the end of a 50-year old Lord Peter Wimsey PBS mystery called “Murder Must Advertise.” We sang a hymn, as we do every day, and realized that God’s pillar of smoke which accompanied the 40-year wanderings of the Hebrews in the desert,  had become more personal for us.

Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us.

God seemed closer than ever.

This is good and pleasing to God our savior, who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.

(1 Timothy 1, Psalm 113, John 14, Luke 6)

(posted at www.davesandel.net)

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