"We try so hard as Christians. We think such long thoughts, manipulate such long words, and both listen to and preach such long sermons. Each one of us somewhere, somehow, has known, if only for a moment or so, something of what it is to feel the shattering love of God, and once that has happened, we can never rest easy again for tyring somehow to set that love forth not only in words, myriads of words, but in our lives themselves."(F. Buechner "Listening to Your Life" p. 258)
Have you ever had a moment that just left you speechless? Not a devastating one, but where you went were just in such awe of what happened that you wanted to say something, to write down what you were feeling, and yet words escaped you.
Those occasions for me are great gifts of God's grace in my life. And yes, as a preacher I do try to articulate them, though no one would accuse me of preaching a long sermon. Of course try to describe that experience to someone and it will be quite a challenge. And maybe there's a reason for that.
When we spend to much time trying to come up with the right words to describe something only we've experienced it rarely works. Yet if I try to just take it all in, to incorporate it into the ever expanding life mental filing cabinet of life experiences, it has the potential to become a part of who I am. And maybe that's the point of any such moment, to help us grow closer to God and who we are supposed to be as humans.
Blessings,
Ed
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