I recently was dragging around the house, trying to complete what seemed like an impossible "to do" list and strewing sighs at my poor family when the phone rang. I picked it up and said "Hello!" in a bright and cheery voice. I think I am not alone in this. I think many, if not all, of us have stopped mid-fight, mid-scold, or in a bad funk and put on a "nice" voice and had a pleasant conversation with someone. There are many reasons why we do this, and partly it is image management. But there is also a good side to this, a hospitable view that people who are calling deserve to be treated pleasantly despite the circumstances of our day and are worth putting a little extra effort out for. I startled myself, though, by the energy I was able to drag up for an unknown caller that I hadn't bothered to tap into for my own family.
I happened to be especially aware of it because of a formation exercise that was an assignment a week or two before. The assignment was to try to imagine Christ present with us in each conversation we had, standing next to us. After several days, the exercise changed to challenge us to image the person we were talking to was Christ. That is really difficult! There are certainly ways of speaking to my children, my husband, that I would not dream of using if Christ was physically standing next to me and would never even occur to me if I was speaking directly to Him. That has really caused me to pause over the last few weeks and I have stopped myself from saying some things, or changed the tone of what I was about to say because of this exercise.
Which leads me to the etiquette of a church blog. I think that there are times when we can have more freedom to say what we really think when we are anonymous. People's perceptions and filters about us are turned off when we stand behind that cloak of invisibility. We can be vulnerable, letting the pain and frustration we feel be known, without any risk of personal rejection. However, when we let the anonymity go too far we can forget that at the end of our pointed remarks are real people, with real feelings. As Erik pointed out so eloquently in a comment he left, elders and elders' spouses are also Mom and Dad to him. I love the dialogue, and the possibilities that are open to us through the use of the Internet, but we need to have a modicum of common courtesy toward each other, and hopefully, since this is a church blog, we can go beyond that with each other. Let's just imagine that Christ is present with us as we type our comments and he is present with each person who is reading our words - since that is what we believe. As Saint Patrick so beautifully put it in his prayer, "[Christ]Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me".
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"The Spirit of nonviolent power is on the Anointed One, the Messiah:
'And he will bring justice to the nations.
He will not quarrel, nor scream at people.
You will not be able to hear his voice above the chatter of the street.
In bringing discernment of what is good and right to the point
where it actually governs human existence,
he will not use even the violence it takes to finish breaking a stick that is already cracked or smother a smoking wick.'
Matt 12:18-21, quoted from Isa. 42:1-4"
The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard, page 383
This passage (I'm not sure who translated but I like the word selection) showed up this morning in my preparation for class and was brought up, again, during class by another. I offer it here not as condemnation, but as recognition and confession that I do this! It felt a little voyeuristic reading the blog dialogue. But when I read this passage this morning, it reminded me that I recently did exactly the same thing! Different group, different topic, same behavior.
I am only a breath away from sin.
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.
This Man of God
He feeds my soul.
He strings together these common words.
And delivers them in a canter that entices me to consider
I hover at the edge like a starving cat.
So, so hungry yet wary.
Many times the wary causes me to turn and slink away.
But something inside the common words keeps at me.
To look at the words without hearing the voice is only a part.
I, myself, can read the words out loud too,
But it is not the same.
Because the confidence expressed is wordless and the glue
That binds the common words
Into the message of the hope of God.
He has been called to rattle the unaware.
To bump into their neatly stacked life.
To pull out a brick from the middle that causes a little shudder.
It is a life not for the easily discouraged.
Many come and many go.
But none leave unchanged.
Some little bit lodged deep in them
Disturbing.
For future work.
Great is his love.
His work has shown me God.
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