The Luminous Moment

I was sitting on the patio last night, reading and reflecting on some things we talked had about in our Bible study on Wednesday on the Sufficiency of God.  I had mentioned in our time that I often read literature written by those who have spent long years in prison camps or in other isolated situations not of their own making because those memoirs teach me about living large in smallness.

It seems to me that the more we have, the less content we are.  I see it myself in my TV watching habits.  I don’t spend much time in front of the TV, but periodically I’ll head in there and check out what’s on.  As my generation knows, there was a day when we had three, perhaps four channels to choose from.  Some really great, often hilariously funny, shows drew us together as a family for an hour or two of entertainment.  Now, as I flip through the myriads of options available to me, I find that I can rarely settle on anything.  I’m always checking, wondering, “Is there something better on?”  This is one of many situations where I see that in our largeness, we have become smaller.

But yesterday evening, in that still, reflective moment, when my world was small–no one around, very quiet, no phone with me, no TV, no sounds except the normal outdoor nature music, a book I’d already read before resting in my lap, a simple beverage at my side, no plans, no real external stimuli, nothing but me and God, I saw hugeness.  In that small moment, all life was present. Contentment swept me away. Joy saturated my soul.

Those times never last long, but they inform forever.  Life is ever so much more than the endless tasks, the constant drive for entertainment, for distraction, for stimulation, for escape from pain. Yes, tasks must be accomplished–but probably not nearly so many as we think.  Yes, entertainment is wonderful–but far more wonderful when it comes only rarely, rather than as a constant bombardment. Yes, pain, be it physical, emotional, social, psychological or spiritual, generally spurs us to find a way to escape it, but sometimes we do best to sit and hold it fully.

But these moments of luminosity, when the veil that currently separates us from the real Presence of God is whisked away for just a second or two–those moments are Life, while all other is just living.

I start this day with gratefulness for smallness, perhaps the best place of all to grow a large and vibrant soul.