Good morning beautiful people!
How are we all? I hope we’re charged because I am! If not it’s ok, you’ve got time trust me!
I’ve been doing lots of reading recently, and I’m super pleased because as we all know, there are just some invaluable pieces of information that you can only really find deep within the belly of a book, and what’s worse is that it requires your slow commitment from the beginning. I sometimes wish someone could just give me every gem about every book ever written so I can skip the reading part, but alas you can’t! You actually have to go through it a page at a time, digesting each isolated sentence, that —when in fellowship with others — creates this harmonious picture that serves to progressively explain things you’ve lived your whole life but have never fully understood.
One of the books I’ve been reading more and more each day has been the Bible. I recently had my soul rewatered a few weeks ago at another retreat I attended with a few friends, and boy did I feel revived. You know that fresh feeling you get after getting out of the shower and you feel clean again, that’s what it felt like, but for my soul!
All jokes aside, I’ve read the Bible multiple times, but one thing that I’ve never done is spend hours on individual verses. See when we studied we went through each verse slowly. Gradually breaking down the language, discussing the story and analysing the structure. Essentially Looking at what it had to say first before we applied ourselves to It (exegesis). It was wonderful!
We had begun our days very early in the morning, and I hadn’t had much rest, other than the 3 hours I had slept prior. So as you can imagine— I wasn’t at a peak level of focus, and in the midst of it, the process felt quite painful.
And to tell you the truth, this retreat couldn’t have been at a worse time. See I’ve been in the middle of a huge deadline for the last 2 months and man, the back to back edits have been relentless. Nonetheless, on this particular weekend, I forced my head out of my world, closed my laptop, put my phone on silent and decided to take in every inch of the world that Jesus lived in.
Sometimes you get so lost in writing your own story, that you forget to be a freely living character in His story. But we’ll park that here for now!
I’m going somewhere I promise…
I guess before I go into what I really want to say, isn’t it incredible how profoundly simple life seems from someone who’s lived it. I mean when was the last time you talked to a grandparent, or just listened to two old people talk about life?
This weekend I was privileged enough to be an audience to an intimate conversation between my friend’s grandma and her long time friend. We were at a 60th Birthday party celebrating the life of my friend’s dad. She was his mother in law.
Sitting gracefully at the age of 80 something, she and her friend exchanged a few slow words about life.
Do you rememeber in ‘89 when x passed away…
Her friend began reflecting on a time back in 1989 when they were in Jamaica. I listened as she narrated this wonderful reflection on the gift of life. She had witnessed her niece pass away a few months after her husband, and as they chuckled at some of the memories that passed them by, one clear message rang louder than ever — If not for the grace of God, we wouldn’t have made sense of it.
I sat there with a sore mouth. I had been trying to hide my smile as I forced down some jerk chicken and coleslaw into my cheeks, but I couldn't. I mean the absolute innocence of the moment was outstanding. I got to travel through time, listening as they shared the content of their lives pages and in every turn — If not for the grace of God, we wouldn’t have made sense of it.
I often think about some of my own memories, and I’m deeply saddened by how much I don’t remember. And as joyous as it was to listen to these ladies narrate the tales of ‘89, it was deeply saddening for me. In my wealth of experience, I’m at poverty in my presence. At 23, some of my key moments of cultivation are but a blur in my mind.
I pray at that age I can remember; with precise details, the tales of my own story.
Slow down.
One theme that has been echoing in my life over the past few months has been to slow down. Across the days of each retreat, I was reminded of how long one day actually is. I mean when you’re away from all your luxuries; your phone, your iPad, your computer, and you’re extremely underslept, then you quickly realise how long a minute actually is.
Slow down!
When was the last time you felt your heartbeat other than when it was panicked by an alarm or a deadline?
An Ineffable Presence.
I look at the interesting nature of my greatest example Jesus, and I look at the speed of his life…
He was never in a rush!
I mean look at the story in John 11. Jesus hears of his bro Lazarus being ill, and he decides to stay an extra two days where he was. Deep it, Lazarus wasn’t one of the people that begged friend, the bible says that Jesus loved Martha, her sister and Lazarus. He loved them! [vs 5] Yet when he received the news he stayed where he was for two more days. And you’d imagine after those two days he’d be rushing to buck his guy, but no!
He arrives, and before anything, we see this patient dialogue between him and Martha [v 21]. Then we see Martha go and get Mary and after that we see Mary go out, fall at the feet of Jesus, and share a moment with him.
You know what’s most profoundly interesting to me… Jesus’ reaction. In such a moment of urgency, all you see Jesus do is display this ineffable sense of presence.
Jesus saw her weeping, and he saw how the people who were with her were weeping also; his heart was touched, and he was deeply moved. 34 “Where have you buried him?” he asked them.
“Come and see, Lord,” they answered.
35 Jesus wept.
In that moment, with Mary, Jesus wept.
Wow!
How many moments have you missed because of your rush of moment to moment? One thing that has been clear above all things is that whatever you think can’t be paused, can indeed stop.
If Jesus could find a moment to weep; In a city where his life was grievously threatened, four days after his friend had died… then what’s the rush?
5 More Mins w/
Josiah Hyacinth
An Ineffable Presence.
Great progression through the read
Very much needed !