Uncovering Joy – Pressing On
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God‟s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)
In the early morning I regularly sit at my computer and use the works of various well- written saints to lead me in devotions and the reflections I write for the weekday devotions on the congregations website. Over the years there has been a woman who passes by the front of the house. She is chugging away. Arms are pumping, her stride is wide, and she is wearing a bright safety vest making sure people driving through the neighborhood before sunrise will see her marching through our streets. Over the years she has dropped quite a bit of weight. That is not the first thing I noted. She remains in my mind because of her perseverance. In any kind of weather – she is there. When it is dark and cold she is wrapped up with her scarf around her mouth and nose and her arms are pumping with every stride. I can be making an early morning hospital call and there she is. She is in this for the long haul...something I am not able to do very often.
In this same neighborhood we are blessed with another walker who has caught my attention. He too does the early morning routine but just a bit later than the woman noted above. This walker is an older man. This is a man bent over by the years of his life. If he was to simply look straight out where his eyes were pointing, it appears as though all he would see is the ground directly in front of his feet. He does not walk fast...but he walks. Within that glance at that old man, I am a witness to determination and dedication. I don‟t know why he walks. I don‟t know how he has the fortitude to enter the day within this kind of discipline. I simply am there to see him pass by. What a rich and bountiful way for me to begin my day.
There is another man who walks through the neighborhood to catch a bus. It is his routine. I have been a witness to it for twelve years. He too dresses for whatever the weather will bring his way. He is on his way to work. I don’t know what he does or where he works. One day in the middle of the winter on a brutally cold and windy day I stopped my car and asked if he would like a ride. I learned that offering people a ride these days is not the best idea. He looked a bit frightened as he shook his head. I wondered how many people have stopped and asked if he needed a ride on morning like this or in the middle of summer storms.
We pass by so many people within our day. Most of the people are anonymous and we never have the opportunity to engage them in conversation. It is important to look again and take the time to honor the way we walk through the various patterns and routines of life that shape so much of what we do and who we become. In that way, we will always stay connected to the common bond we have with one another. For me that translates into a grand parade of God’s beloved people. It is both a parade in which I am living and it is one at which I am looking. Over the years, it is also a wellspring of inspiration helping me to face the day with vivid examples of how we are able to press on or adapt or change the day.
Some time ago I ruptured the Achilles tendon in my right leg. Nine years prior to that incident, I ruptured my left Achilles tendon. The recovery time was lengthy and rehabilitation was slow. I’m not a professional athlete so there was no special clinic and no intensive physical therapy that would get me back onto the playing field. I was simply going back into the ordinary flow of my life – always active but never at the level of a “real” athlete. A daily routine of exercise has always been something of a problem for me. If there is an excuse as to why I cannot enter into a new discipline – I’ll take it.
Within this time of healing and recovery, there was that nameless, old man walking by the window of my office in our home - again and again...and again. I would be inside writing daily devotions and he was out there devotionally moving on down the road. If a person in that physical condition is able to be out there every day walking as though this will be the way he will enter the rest of the day, could I also marshal the courage and discipline to begin my healing? More and more, his regular presence out there on the street became a moment of sheer joy for me. It was a reminder of the substance that makes us people truly human.
I gained much from noting how he walked. It started to become a symbol for me. With his body curved forward he lifted his eyes to meet the road out ahead of him. Wearing a baseball cap, it was as though he had to force himself to lift up his eyes a bit more. His action reminded me that we do not walk out into the possibilities of the future by staying with that which is so easy to see and that which we already know. The future bids us to come and begin to live within whatever it will offer to us. To enter that part of our lives it is vital for us to lift up our eyes and go. I really don‟t care if this man was told by his doctor that he must do this or if he finds this time alone on the road as a necessary way to stay alive. For me, he is the reminder that I can face this day and do so even when the shape of my life appears to be less-than-able to push on through whatever will come next.
Pressing on in the face of whatever is pressing in upon us is essential to the shaping of our character. The spirituality of everyday life that I am calling urban spirituality invites us to be wooed by the stream of people that makes the ordinary a parade of hopefulness. The availability of these common aspects of hopefulness has the power to pull us along and open up the vision of who we are capable of being. This does not mean that I must become something great and grand. Rather, it means that I will be given the courage to be me. The spirit of our God whips around and through the community. Whenever I fall short or stumble or become overwhelmed by the questions and doubts of my life, the wind blows by and the lives of others become the tools that are handed to me to re-shape the day.
I find that this wind of the spirit never stops blowing. No matter where I might be, there is this breeze that can refresh and renew. Within the complexities and diversity of urban living, we are blessed with images of life that can be so different from our own preferred ways of living that we are forever walking at the cusp of surprise. It is within those moments of surprise that we are offered another way of seeing and another way of taking part in what is to come. Therefore, the surprising nature of the common and ordinary bids us to press on and move closer to those around us so that we are able to see more ways of becoming truly human. My way of doing things and seeing things and creating things is often the greatest impediment to becoming more fully human and therefore less likely to appreciate the gifts our humanity that walk so close by us and stand so close at hand.
The examples I gave of how a few people press on within their daily walking is just a simple image of how moments of joy are ready to be uncovered even when we are being consumed by the issues of our own predicaments. In the life of the Church – when we draw close and take another look at one another within the diversity of the community – there are people who will amaze us with their ability to face each day pressing on as the beloved of God and walking within the amazing grace of the promise of their baptism. For example, I know a woman who has no doubts about her place before God and her part in the saving life of the followers of Jesus. She is beloved by our God who will be eternally present for her and with her.
At the same time, she has experience parts of the body of the church that will not walk with her or see her as our God sees her. In fact, in many ways the institution of the church has rejected her and then in what tries to be “nice” language, the church attempts to talk about love but the fullness of that love is not available to her just as she is.
She is not alone. There is a collection of people – of saints – who take a look at all the ways the structures of the church try to limit the utter availability of the life of grace and hopefulness and yet they continue to press on within the sure and certain hope of the fullness of the Reign of God. It is an amazing sign of hope and grace. Like that old man, their sight will not be limited to what is at their feet. They are looking forward into what is coming down the road for they know that down the road is a joy that is already available to them even within the brokenness called the church.
We are blessed in urban settings because among us there is a greater chance that we will have within our gathering of saints those people who are readily pushed out of many churches. We are blessed because if we simply lift up our eyes and look around, the differences that often divide us become the surprise of how the spirit of God is forever being creative and painting the backdrop of our lives with a word of never-ending hope.
Having said all this, it is embarrassing to know that for some saints among us - every move and every step within the life of the church must be one of pressing-on-in-spite-of. For people who are being excluded from the full fellowship of the church, the body of Christ acts as though the surprising and creative power of the future and present rule of God is a breath of life that is also being excluded. It is as though the church cannot and will not acknowledge that the Spirit blows where it will. In many ways the church has become afraid of this wind that brings life. In many ways the church has become anxious about who will be brought into the mix of our communities.
Within the urban church these “out-of-place” saints have a place to sit down and rest and begin to be exactly who they are – God’s beloved. Urban spirituality is a life that sees beyond the limits and guidelines and gate-keeping that is unwilling to experience the fullness of the joy of the Lord’s presence. It is no wonder that so many people who are not within the designated bounds of acceptability leave our communities. It is important to say that it is also wonder-full that we have people who stay and press on and expect that the Reign of God will be here - now - among us.
I find that in urban settings, people within the GLBT community who are a part of the baptized, beloved of God, and followers of Jesus walk among us as signs of promise. They have little onto which they can grasp to encourage them within the political life of the church...and yet, they sing and praise God and join hands with the whole community. As with all of us, they have is that pearl of great price...and they hold it closely and they press on. As they stand and sit among us and we allow ourselves to see the living presence of our God, the joy of the urban congregation expands.
Hope will not disappoint us. The promise of God’s Reign cannot be cut short or held back. It has been thrown out into the world with a freedom that cannot be contained. In the meantime, there are many opportunities to see living parables – stories and images of how, within the gathering of ordinary people, the Reign of God opens up all around us and surprises us with a fullness of life we did not think we would ever see – joy.
TRRR
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