Hit the Ground Crawling

And just like that, “Sacred Days” are over (well, sort of… we still have a couple of days until Epiphany, but some of us have to go back to work), and I found myself flailing wildly, searching for my cell phone in a near panic when my previously mentioned legitimate alarm clock went off at 5am, and I neglected to remember my new plan to turn off electronic devices and pack them away until after the daily office, every morning…

I never do anything halfway, and a phrase I have come to embrace in recent years is, “hit the ground running.” 

However, I feel like, “hit the ground crawling,” might better describe me as of late.

It’s day four of a new year, and… decidedly… I still don’t have it all together.  You would think I’d wake up one of these days finding that this had changed, right?  Here’s a new favorite quote:

“Courage doesn’t always roar, sometimes it’s the quiet voice at the end of the day whispering, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’” –Mary Anne Radmacher

Just a few weeks ago, during the short Advent season which seemed longer than ever, I read about, wrote about, and spoke about peace.  And here we are again:

Psalm 85:8, “Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people…” (NRSV).

If you’re sitting on the floor, today, wondering how to win the race when you can’t even get out of the blocks; you might pause to remember… It’s not a sprint.  It’s not even a marathon.  Peace is better than chaos, and it begins with us.  Peace is not about being the best but about being who you were meant to be, which most often includes sacrificing everything you thought you wanted for the sake of others.

Did you ever notice how the priests who carried the ark of the covenant across the Jordan river, “stood in the middle of the Jordan, until the entire nation finished crossing over…” (Joshua 3:17) or how we’re called to, “live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us…” (Ephesians 5:2) or how even Jesus did some really weird stuff, seemingly not the kind of things you would expect from Messiah, like spitting on the ground and granting sight through the use of a mud mask (see John 9)? 

Just in case we’re still unclear (and by we, I almost always mean me); it’s not a glamorous life, this following—literally following—to the point of being last… this servanthood that sometimes requires spitting and getting our hands dirty… this crawling around on the floor, knowing that running would be faster but would not incite peace… this sitting in silence, listening to the voice of God…

L.