from A Cry Like A Bell
This is the irrational season
when love blooms bright and wild.
Had Mary been filled with reason
there'd have been no room for the child.
Peppermint mocha this morning, one of the small signs that Christmas is on its way.
Madeleine is a theologian, writer, and artist that speaks to my condition (a quaker way of saying--speaks to my context and my soul).
Taking this poem in this morning (with my mocha), wondering about the mystery of Mary--her courage and bravery.
How does reason keep me from receiving all that the Holy Spirit invites me into?
We don't have to let go of "reason", of common sense, in the spiritual life. Mind + soul + heart + body come together in a wholistic experience with God.
However, my common sense/rationality can get in the way of the wild wonder of Christmas.
In my work, I try to communicate the work of soul in ways that "numbers" people can understand. Assessment is part of the process of pastoring in a university environment. How do we assess our worship serves? Service projects? How many students do we mentor, pastor, counsel? How do we determine if "spiritual growth" has happened?
At home, I fight the tide of dishes and laundry and general mess that keeps flooding our house. I spin routines and chore lists in my head, trying to figure out how to keep home life moving most efficiently and with the least chaos.
And so, even as a pastor (and especially as a pastor), I lose sight of the wild wonder. I get so filled up with practicality, numbers, schedules, budgets, grading, errands that the wonder dissipates and I am left stuffed to overflowing: filled up with my reasonable life.
Oh, to embrace the wild wonder of Mary! To take this irrational season with all of its wild claims and beliefs and breathe it in...to choose wonder over my reasonable life?
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