Pastoral Thought--June 16

There are times in our days when we come across something that holds us in one moment. At first glance, we might falsely believe that what we are reading holds no long-term benefit to us. But it does, if we are willing to press in a bit. . . and linger. . . Perhaps that thing that we find, or that we read, or we hear is clear. Perhaps it is not. Perhaps what we find thing “thing” inviting us to spend some significant time sitting in an introspective position when there are things in our days that could draw us away. But whatever it is, and however you experience it, God can speak to us through it. 

Such are the words, for me, of A.R. Ammons. In the poem entitled, Tape for the Turn of the Year, he writes: 

don’t establish the

boundaries

first, 

the squares, triangles, 

boxes

of possibility, 

and then

pour

life into them, trimming

off left-over edges,

ending potential:

When you first read the poem I suspect that you felt a little bewildered or confused by what Ammons says. The poem is quickly worded. But if you lingered, I bet you heard God. 

The words of this poem speak hope to me. They speak of an unrealized possibility or potential that lives in me and in you. If you linger with them long enough, if you allow your day’s pacing to slow so you sit with Ammon, you might just hear words of revelation from God to you. . . words about potential and about mission. As I spend more time with Ammon’s words, I find myself wondering about how do I limit what life can be or become? 

Ammons invites us to take a long, hard, look at the “established boundaries,” that we set up, or that society hoists upon you, and consider what would life look like if we stopped saying “what cannot happen” and wonder “what could?"

Blessings

Rev. Derek