My niece and transitoriness
Today I found the noon-day daily office to distract me. My niece is in the hospital, thousands and thousands of miles away. All of my family were physically altered and continue to be. Their day was changed.
The outcome is unclear, perhaps tomorrow we will laugh in relief or cry in deep pain, but today schedules were altered. Yet I can talk to her by cell phone and almost feel guilty because its so easy to call, why aren't I there? It feels like she's down the block, and how silly not to be there. It feels that tangible. Yet my day is not physically changed. My schedule was unhampered; the cell phone allowed it.
Have we given something to the devil in our transitoriness? When we talk and talk and talk and talk on the cell phone, but never seem to be close? One can't blame the technology, perhaps the same argument could have been made by those contemplating post or telegraph at their dawns. When we give up the well-place hand on the shoulder or the hug for adventure or just a better paying job, have we stagnated or killed a part of ourselves? New communities develop as people move and allow for that touch, but does a society of transitoriness allow for a culture of regeneration or accountability?
Or is this just life, a series of decay and rejuvination that requires careful attention or regardless of context the significant will be lost? That perhaps there is a tendency for the love to smolder, but that need not be the summation of intertwined lives at a distance?
I welcomed the distraction.
The outcome is unclear, perhaps tomorrow we will laugh in relief or cry in deep pain, but today schedules were altered. Yet I can talk to her by cell phone and almost feel guilty because its so easy to call, why aren't I there? It feels like she's down the block, and how silly not to be there. It feels that tangible. Yet my day is not physically changed. My schedule was unhampered; the cell phone allowed it.
Have we given something to the devil in our transitoriness? When we talk and talk and talk and talk on the cell phone, but never seem to be close? One can't blame the technology, perhaps the same argument could have been made by those contemplating post or telegraph at their dawns. When we give up the well-place hand on the shoulder or the hug for adventure or just a better paying job, have we stagnated or killed a part of ourselves? New communities develop as people move and allow for that touch, but does a society of transitoriness allow for a culture of regeneration or accountability?
Or is this just life, a series of decay and rejuvination that requires careful attention or regardless of context the significant will be lost? That perhaps there is a tendency for the love to smolder, but that need not be the summation of intertwined lives at a distance?
I welcomed the distraction.
posted by Learner at 3/07/2006 12:03:00 AM
6 Comments:
Let me screw up your daily office again like some million years ago as you were waking up at the bank each day.
Let me do as you did to me, with an invitation to come check out this new church in Joseph City.
Let me make a call to arms to my fellow soldier and battle buddy once again to come to my side, even if only in prayer, for this new endeavor of a church plant.
The invitation comes, with trumpets and fanfare for nothing the Lord does is ordinary. You are invited and wished to come;knowing full well it is not our will but His that needs to be done.
So whether you come in person or in prayer; let the whole world know that Jason is one of my dearest friends - and I call now upon him to stand with me in battle.
Your niece and transitoriness stirred this up in me - know I am praying for your family.
Perhaps this is just life; ebb and flow, up and down. I am sorry that you feel so down. Katie and I hope that your niece is well; we have her in prayer.
I hope that the Lord works in and through culture and technology. If we used it as a tool then He is working through it, but if it controls us it is being controled by the devil. Pretty black and white, but I think that this is my Charismatic side.
Ben,
I accept the screwing up of my ordered world through prayer and whatever else may come. Viva la new works in the power of Jesus! Interestingly, Eric (ericsconversation.blogspot.com) is chomping at the bit to start a church as well in easter CT. What's with all this church planing business? Can't a guy just live a peaceable life and work with his hands in contentment? Or at least get a hot babe and then contentment? Oh, well there is great adventure at hand and usually what's not predictable ends up being best.
My niece will spend the night again at the hospital. They can't find anything wrong, but she's dizzy with a bad headache for over three days now and some numbness in her arms and legs. It may have to do with all of the pain in her past. She is scared, but I think doing well.
Eric,
It's interesting to think about technology and culture, their relationship with each other and how God, the enemy, or ourselves use them.
Thanks for the prayers. We're kind of in a holding pattern, but I think there is some more closeness developing between my niece and me that is a blessing. There has always been a tug-of-war with being in CT. I rarely doubt that God called me here, but sometimes I'm unaware of the price. My niece can be quite frontal about it, "OK, you need to just move back. Enough is enough!" I just hope part of Judgement isn't that I didn't nurture my niece and nephew enough - they've had such a tough life, in their such few years.
To pull out of the blah, an area I didn't explore is how wonderful technology is. I lamented in my guilt for feeling next to my niece when I'm not actually there. But, really I could have just as easily praised to be able to talk to her and not just get a letter from two weeks after the fact. I lament because there are loved ones in Phoenix whose touch I miss, but then don't praise for those who love me in CT.
You're right about ebb and flow. As long as God's got his pulse on the current, who am I to complain? He has sustained to date; no he has blessed beyond words even when the funk stupor tries to maintain distance between me and the Lord.
Remember, that the cell phone communitcator with your neice is truly a blessing. You are able be with her without being with her. No matter what anyone says, I believe that when we are the cell phone we are present with whomever we are talking to. Be good.
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