This morning , as soon as Jennifer left for work, I quickly ate the remainder of my breakfast. I finished getting ready to confront my day making sure to tighten my shoes a bit as my feet are a little sore. I poured some cold-brew coffee into one of our travel cups, and headed out to face the day. As I have a busy day and week ahead of me, I wanted to get cracking, and was excited to do so. . . The long weekend, and time with family, were a blessing, but I knew that there were many things in my emails that needed my attention.
Briskly I walked over to the church on this cool morning, sipping my cold coffee. Silently I thanked God for the quiet morning. A new podcast spoke truth to me about my relationship with God as I walked. I could feel my creative juices flowing as I sat down to write at my desk.
Like you, each morning I receive a number of emails that I have subscribed to. Their content is varied but they all come together to help my mind grow and evolve. Slowly I made my way through each of them granting them the needed attention. Some were devotional. Some were leadership-based. A couple just highlighted the news (I skimmed that one quickly). Finally, I came to the last one, and found my attention held there. This was an email that was sent to me Sunday morning and I had not opened it yet.
This devotional-email shared with me the words of Rainer Maria Rilke. He was a Bohemian-Austrain born poet and novelist who lived from 1875-1926. A number of years ago Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows translated his poems from German into English. As the devotional instructed me, I read the words out loud:
God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
Then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
Go to the limits of your longing.
Embody Me.
Flare us like flame
And make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Jsut keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the county they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.
As I finished, I smiled. Poetry speaks to the soul. I read these words through once mumbling them to myself; just barely above a whisper. I would read them vocally as the author wanted but not that loudly. . . I sighed, and thought, ‘well it isn’t that hard. Just read the poem.” I paused, sipped some more coffee, and read them again louder. With no one in the church yet, I had some room to speak out loud the words of poetry that Rilke wrote to my empty office.
That was when it hit me. Hearing the words of this poem out loud provided they avenue to help them speak on their own. I heard the musicality that lived there in Rilke’s words. “Embody me” . . . “Don’t let yourself lose me.” . . . “Give me your hand.” His words became a prayer to me. Amidst my busy morning, with a mind already cluttering with lists and tasks, God was trying to break through to me.
I hope that you will take a moment today and read those words out loud yourself. . . Don’t worry it is not a long poem and won’t take a lot of time. Dwell with them. Really, take some time with each line and allow God to invite you inward. We are often so busy that we cannot find room in our hearts to let one more thing enter them. But when we do, I wonder what God might say to us? I wonder what invitation God might make of us? I wonder who we might be called to share these words with?
Blessings
Rev. Derek
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