2023-05-03 A Meditation on Interruption

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Pe 5:8 ESV)

Holy interruption, the ways that some contentedness is targeted by an enemy: a spiritual foe breaks up the party, interrupts the zealous activity, ends the peaceful excitement, harms the vulnerable forerunner. Sometimes we feel we necessarily, for fear of a scary leading edge, cope and compromise, finding a stasis of so-called peaceful existence alongside this foe. But any analysis of the situation is in the process of proving there is an avenue. There is some way shape and form for society to find itself, in labors, in families, in workplaces and places of rest.

For we understand white light white heat, a fact that in our own selves is the sabotage and the spiritual efforts subconsciously to negotiate or to please those who wish us ill. Who can stand entirely on their own? Who doesn’t need some gentler climes? Who doesn’t thrive as a response to being appreciated? Who, in the vast accumulation of experiences, doesn’t at times recall the elusive sentiment or sensation, the mental horizons, of a former blessed time? So we clutch onto experiences, but it is the Spirit who gives good gifts.

Mighty fortitude some show, who, in the face of a social reprobation and dismissal, soldier on. Mighty character those who, against an enemy’s wish they’d compromise themselves or others, take the high and hard route. Mighty discovery of the better side of the matter, a community coaxed into its best form by the leading edge labors of a few. So we do not dawdle but stand in amazement at the woman or man who has been too tough a nut to crack, who mesmerizes or calls and echoes to our inner angels. The one who in liminal roll of the die puts up with our interrupting, sinful attacks. We attack those who should be revered and held up. We attack those who have a good word for us. We attack, then go back to nursing our wounds and leaning on our neighbors for some free love.

Therefore the hope is that honesty would triumph over Law: before “fixing” things, that we would announce our bouts with addiction or boasts, selfishness and intentions of harm the call to live near to a luminous light and a wild star, without trying to own the situation ourselves. Learning to live on the good will of others, trusting this against all sense and all odds to be there for us come time to see our true colors.