Transcendence
by Ted Slater on 04/24/2009 at 2:21 PM
I've been busy. Perhaps too busy. I've had to make decisions about what to let fall between the cracks. And sometimes things just fall through the cracks all by themselves. Innumerable things bob unfinished in my wake, victims of my crowded schedule.
Communicating with authors, writing contracts, consulting our legal and orthodoxy departments, editing articles, creating article imagery, writing blog posts, enduring meetings, updating our archive, trying to debug Citrix and FTP, prototyping forthcoming new media features, trying to send a digitized copy of Ted Hughes' "Snow" to George Halitzka, resolving invoice issues, approving Facebook friend requests, considering unsolicited articles and press releases, forwarding Boundless Answers questions to either Candice or John, responding to some incoming constituent e-mails, making flight and hotel arrangements for my trip to the NEXT conference ... among other things. And that's just this week.
And I have home stuff too, of course, just like you.
Some of it I do well. Some I do adequately. All of it I do amid a packed schedule.
And in the back of my mind I hear a still small voice, the transcendent voice of God that gives meaning to all these particulars. The Spirit whose character -- His love, His faithfulness, His rest -- is a comforting constant during all this flux.
I'm so preoccupied with all these trees: the birches, the oaks, the maples, the aspens; though I too often can't see the forest, I know it's there, and take comfort that He holds these vast wilds, together with its wild creatures, in His hands.
Rachel Starr Thomson knows this tension, between a physical world and its demands and the steady eternality of a spiritual world. In today's featured Boundless Webzine article, "A Walk Across the Water," she writes about "living on a higher plain than all this busywork, about doing the work as worship." She continues:
Transcendence. So often I grow comfortable here, distracted in my busyness, secure in my surroundings. I forget that life is a vapor in the wind -- that I am walking, not on solid ground, but on water.
Often, too, I am overwhelmed by the hardships that life can present. But comfortable or not, I need constantly to transcend circumstances. Why? Because I am in the world, but I am not of it. I come from a better world. I go to a better world. For a while, I'm living the reality of that better world -- by faith -- here.
May I become more aware of that better world, as I continue striving to fulfill my calling in this one. And may this heavenly destiny provide equilibrium and motivation as I engage this earthly journey.
1. Andrea-Elena said the following at 2:56 PM on Apr 24:
Interesting that Ms. Thomson chose the spelling plain for a connotation that usually takes the spelling plane. Reminds me of these verses:
"LORD, You are my portion and my cup of blessing; You hold my future. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance" (Psalm 16:5-6).
"He brought me out to a wide-open place; He rescued me because He delighted in me" (Psalm 18:19).
Thus ---> living on the plane that is God's "country" is akin to living on a wide-open plain: a large space of land, whose horizon extends farther than the eye can see. A place that is fertile and lush, like the "breadbasket" areas of the world... hmm... which reminds me of Bethlehem ("house of bread")... which is where the Bread of life was born.
Love the connections!!! *bouncy office chair dance*
Ooh... I think this is fodder for a poem! =D
2. Rachael said the following at 3:46 PM on Apr 24:
I loved her article. I liked this line of hers: "Life, finally, is not about this world at all." And the last line of the first paragraph of hers quoted in this post. And the ending...
Yes life is water, a vapor, a here and now and not the forever. It's not really the circumstances but what we make of them or more, who/what we look to to get us through them. Whose hand do we hold to pull us out when we sink?
3. Julie said the following at 11:11 AM on Apr 27:
I am adding my comment because I thought this was an amazing article and am sad there are only 2 other people who commented on it :) It spoke to my heart on a, dare I say, transcendent level, bypassing a lot of the intellectual filters that Christian articles often get caught on, and reminding me of the Real, the Good, the True, the Beautiful, Himself. Thank you.
4. Rachael said the following at 2:47 PM on Apr 27:
I came across the following quote, which kind-of relates in that 'water' is mentioned, and it relates to the Christian life...it's from "Shortcomings" in the book The Valley of Vision:
"Help me to see that although I am in the wilderness it is not all briars and barrenness. I have bread from heaven, streams from the rock, light by day, fire by night, thy dwelling place and thy mercy seat. I am sometimes discouraged by the way, but though winding and trying it is safe and short; Death dismays me, but my great high priest stands in its waters, and will open me a passage, and beyond is a better country. While I live let my life be exemplary, When I die may my end be peace."
I love that.
5. VV said the following at 12:25 PM on Apr 28:
It sounds to me like you need an intern. LOL.