I served at two retreats this weekend.... one for the area Parish Nurses, and another for the pray-ers (ie, the people who are called to pray) at (or near) Trinity Lutheran Church, Monroeville.
At both retreats the attendees spoke eloquently about the yearning they experience to "drink deeply" at the well of Christ's presence. The good news is that their retreat time provided an opportunity to take a deep breath and to quench their parched souls... the sad news, they said, was that their whole community had been invited to attend the retreats and many, many folks excused themselves, saying that they were too busy... or that they simply couldn't (wouldn't) see the value in setting aside that amount of time to be "unproductive".
Oh my.... I thought... How sad, that we see uninterrupted time with God as "unproductive".
I am aware that if my heart grieves, how much more must God's? I know how I have felt, on occasion, when somebody I love deeply repeatedly says they don't have time to simply "be" with me. I confess that when I am "turned down" I move on to other things if at all possible.... not so with God, who, through the Holy Spirit, is fervently yet patiently beckoning me into relationship. And God's yearning for each of us never ends.... God's yearning is constant, consistent ... and it abides even when we have grown to be leaders or elders in the body of Christ.
I know that my desire for God is rooted in and initiated by His yearning for me.... and as I rest in His presence (yep, sometimes for hours) I am enlivened...and even empowered to reach out to others in His Name in new and vigorous ways. That's not unproductive....is it?
How is God inviting you to linger awhile in the presence of God's loving, merciful presence?
No comments:
Post a Comment