Hey, Y'all,
Today's RST is a bit of a change of pace (some of you may need to fasten your seat belts for the punchline :-)
Over the past few years I've had this very cool running conversation with a good friend about Truth, about its enormity and universality and transcendence. A corollary of this discussion has been the realization that, if we keep our eyes and ears open, God and Truth are in evidence everywhere around us, even in some pretty unusual and unexpected places (and people).
Take a few days ago, for example; I was on the Pacific Surfliner (riding the rails instead of dealing with traffic--sweet!) on my way to see these very friends (who are in every meaningful way family). It was a gorgeous day, families and surfers alike crowded the beaches all up the coast, the sun was glittering on the Pacific--and suddenly the thought occurred to me, "Man! I am SO blessed!" Where did that come from? Who created in me (and apparently in everyone at the beach that day) that sense of well-being and joy that we associate with "beauty?"
I also think of innumerable moments not merely listening to but profoundly experiencing music (of all sorts, BTW--no snobbishness here :-) From music in church to Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique" to Bill Evans' "We Will Meet Again" to Casting Crowns' "Your Love Is Extravagant" to...well, I could go on and on (and I'm sure some of you are cracking "as opposed to what?!?" right about now :-) Then there's this serendipitous "Truth Moment" (which actually begat this RST).
Ages ago, I don't remember when exactly (probably about the same time as we were "asked" to memorize The Gettysburg Address :-) we were given Longfellow's poem "The Village Blacksmith" to read and discuss, and I distinctly remember how it seemed to impact somewhere deep in my soul with an almost audible "Thud!" It was this palpable, living, breathing thing, and it moved me.
Well, the other day, literally years since I've given this poem any thought whatsoever, in a seemingly random and totally unexpected place, I ran across it again, and the funny thing was that the first part of the poem which had moved me most as a kid still did, but the last couple of stanzas--which I remember not really "getting" back then--really hit me this time. Funny, still moved, but by a different facet this time than last. Kind of like Truth--not some static monument, but a living, breathing, dynamic thing that I experience and learn from and revisit and am moved by again, and probably differently at that.
So here are the last couple of stanzas of the poem--mind you, you should Google the whole thing and enjoy it in toto--but here are the lines that this time impacted me with the unmistakable "Thud!" of Truth.
Toiling, --rejoicing, --sorrowing,
onward through life he goes;
each morning sees some task begin,
each evening sees it close;
something attempted, something done,
has earned a night's repose.
Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend,
for the lesson thou hast taught!
Thus at the flaming forge of life
our fortunes must be wrought;
thus on its sounding anvil shaped
each burning deed and thought.
So what's my point? Funny you should ask :-) It's ludicrous to say that only I and those who believe like me can understand beauty--in fact, there may be those who would do a better job of "getting it" and thus sharing it. It is equally ludicrous, not to mention frustrating and fruitless at best (and overly narrow-minded and arrogance-inducing at worst), to think that any one group of people can claim to have a corner on God or "The Truth." The vastness of God, of Truth, are manifested everywhere around us, we just need to open our eyes (and minds?) to see it.
You've been prayed for today...
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