2024-07-16 A Meditation on Companionships
“7 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.” (Acts 6:7 ESV)
Some of the most existential questions are best encircled with friends. With companionship. With—at times like two ships passing in the night—nonetheless with the ministry of proximity. We think and we wonder around just whom these others are. We see deep movements only a strange genius could orchestrate, that genius being the Holy Spirit who teaches to listen, to pause, to allocate time and space, to worry politely and bless without recompense.
Meantime the world is bearing witness to the same Fact: that times and places are of a generous convenience perhaps now, but what is to prevent the walls from being breached? What is the gift of Peace and Safety that we have come upon? Indeed, it is a proper Bold Move to enter the guise of preparedness, of militancy in the Spirit, of risk-prone—not averse—wild-eyed divergence from some of these our peers and company.
To say we long for Purpose is also to say we are kept Meek around Provision. The proviso of safety and things just bearable by our eager countenances, our eager engagements, our eager signing up. Somehow those elder to us have a few things that, in all lofty remove, are differences. Difference of taste, of self-image, of suitability in our own best judgment: it is a lossy scenario that does away with the trappings of Elitism and Remove, of Wealth and Protectionism. We lose all, that we might—like our Lord on the Cross—gain the world. We begin suddenly to feel a bit self-conscious of our pains around simply being able to Bless in right language, those we are near… because our own guile is less enticed by flattery.
Told to flatter, we think grand and winning thoughts minus the slick or false pretense. Yet to do so is to look a gift horse in the mouth: these our elders and colleagues are giving us of all of themselves, vis-a-vis being a jumping-off point, a richer thought-sphere, an invite to dwell High and Lifted Up, in a Christian sense.
The reality is not so far removed from the front lines that we cannot sip up at the cocktail party and by night be firm and entrenched in a War Front. We are visionaries around the soup-to-nuts nature of that distant-at-times but front-and-center Battleground. The parables heal and keep us in fine spirits, because war being not the worst scenario, it still speaks plainly about horrid scenarios. It speaks plainly about a cavalier or ruinous spirit that is wounded and defeated, time and time again. It speaks about a patient and deserving spirit that scarcely gets its due reward. It speaks of a little friend who we believe in, yet who is giving it all.
The Resolve, then, is to enter the stage-center minus all hangups or ingratitude or ill-at-ease friendships. It is to dream Big of what-all we might say if the lips were loosed and the torrent of observations and thanksgivings and deliberations were unfurled. This is our hour to Thrive, and in thriving to turn the lazy days into Labor around Discovery, to Discover new theology or tend to that aspect of our soul, to Discover new down-time endeavors and tend to that easily-excited aspect of our soul.