consider

Let me just state at the outset of this post that I intend for this to be the last one for the month. This morning, in my circuit of cafe wanderings in the neighborhood, with every good intention of writing, I randomly picked the one place that has no wifi. In their defense they do have the best chocolate croissants...but still no wifi. So, sitting outside at a sidewalk table, watching the community walk, bike, and drive by, with nothing else to do but savor the previously mentioned croissant, I began to consider some new possibilities and realities. It has been a sobering week for those of us who spend significant time at local coffee establishments when it becomes apparent that one individual with one gun can change the world that we've created for ourselves within those walls. The pastoral artist part of me wonders even more than before how can anyone deny the existence of evil in the world, and with that same existence comes the reality of a loving God. I know all the arguments..."How can a loving God allow such things to happen?" It was a loving God who gave creation the free will from which these tragedies stem. His love comes from everything that he has made available to deal with such tragedy. Those who argue against this imply that a loving God should have made a utopia within which there is no choice... a creator of mere puppets. Let's be honest, that crowd would rail against that assumption as well as a denial of "rights". Anyway...I have long known, and from experience I might add...not theoretically, what Elijah knew about God's voice. It comes after the storm, on the back side, in the whisper of a still small voice. God speaks, for the most part, gently, and yet I'm convinced, steadily. It takes a decent amount of work to not hear it. It takes a decent amount of noise to not hear it. Some people, in their flight from God, have filled in the quiet spaces of their lives with every bit of activity ever conceived for the sole purpose of drowning out the voice. Some people, quite inadvertently, have also drowned out the voice and then claim that God has left their side. "I don't even feel God anymore" is what I hear consistently. I can assure you that He hasn't moved. I hear Him when I close everything else off long enough to hear. In these past several months I've struggled to hear all the while longing to hear. In the short bit of time that I existed this morning without wifi, without music, without anything online to consider, I was able to hear a piece...only a piece...but it was enough for me to know that i needed some time to learn to hear again. I have too much extra noise and I suspect that it is coming from the same place that a lot of other peoples come from. In my opinion it's internet noise. It's noise from my ipad and my iphone and all of the twittering that fills the void. So in this, my last post for the month, I bid you all a fond cyber farewell. I am looking forward to what has been hidden in the margins by the busyness of facebook, twitter, and blogs. As tempting as it is to "check in" and let you all see the glamorous life I lead, as much as I'd like to "tweet" some short yet infinitely deep thoughts, and with great regret over not being able to ignore your "farmville" requests, I will be off to other endeavors. Gone is the Facebook and twitter apps from my phone and my ipad. Quiet will be the posts on my blogs. This is my new adventure...just something to consider.