2025-04-17 A Meditation on Finding Our Focus

“22 He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ 28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. 29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. 30 And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”” (Luke 13:22-30 ESV)

Realms to discover, worth discovering; the stark contrast, the hearing of God’s gospel: rewards a strange removal of the Self with abundant Spirit most real. To learn to Listen. To see the stark contrast that our former rebellious selves have lit upon a fountainhead most entertaining and fulfilling: calm is no trademark, only a suggestion, that you, that I, am of the listening crowd.

Because Salvation was nearer to us now than the hour we first believed. Salvation is the narrow gate, obstinate refusal to entertain any other calling or vocation, that is, always we have that Listening posture, that forlorn solo Purpose, no contrived confusion around things that distract.

If we go farther, it is because we needed this boost. We needed the Promise of a salvation nearer than in former times. We learned, again, to Listen: to listen to the harumph of a troubled soul, the churl of an obstinate gatekeeper, the cacophony faithless, not believing in a coming-together poverty-stricken yes, but holier for the trouble. We come together, dear souls Intending some good for the world, and capable thus to discover and make happen, because of learning to Listen. To a Spirit who is drunkenly in all the best senses of inebriated by the Godhead, boisterous and enthusiastic about spilling the beans and Recruiting and adoring and fulfilling our hearts’ deepest longings.

Because we were to carve out space, or to put aside altogether the alternatives, those alternatives being nothing but gimcrack solvents, intending to dilute our Missional focus. See that to recollect the former times, is to sense our own Special Calling to be at loggerheads with Sin and in compassionate embrace with righteousness. To make hay while the sun shines for… for few have this unction, yet those few can become a fortress and city heavily populated: because the ones who Hear, who Listen, who are pre-ordained to have Goodness spilling over and out of all pores and into the milieu of anyone else who would dare… to Listen. Such are the washerwoman and man, the day laborer, the working mom or single-parenting dad, the heart and soul of Corporate mindset which does find Christ an interesting prospectus for the bottom line for all people.