{"id":5879,"date":"2012-11-16T16:15:26","date_gmt":"2012-11-16T21:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=5879"},"modified":"2012-11-20T10:55:58","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T15:55:58","slug":"in-a-world-of-wondering-suddenly-you-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/11\/in-a-world-of-wondering-suddenly-you-know.html","title":{"rendered":"“In a world of wondering, suddenly you know”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

About two years ago, long before I converted, a student was working on his performance of \u201cHow Glory Goes\u201d in a musical theatre masterclass that I was sitting in. \u00a0The song is from the musical\u00a0 Floyd Collins<\/em><\/a>, based on the life of Floyd Collins<\/a>, a cave explorer from Kentucky who was trapped in a cave and starved to death alone. \u00a0(An obvious topic for a musical). \u00a0Before the rocks shifted and cut Floyd off from the surface completely, there was a narrow shaft open. \u00a0A very slight reporter could shimmy down far enough to interview Floyd, but couldn\u2019t reach far enough down to help him. \u00a0Skeets Miller\u2019s coverage won a Pulitzer prize, and was one of the largest stories in the national media between the two world wars.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow Glory Goes\u201d falls at the very end of show. \u00a0The song is sung by Floyd, alone in the dark of the cave, as he gives up hope of rescue and prepares for death. \u00a0I\u2019ve embedded the song from the original Off-Broadway cast below:<\/p>\n<\/iframe>\nFloyd is praying, and his prayer is a series of questions for God about what heaven might be like. \u00a0His questions are slightly childish, and it was difficult to know what to make of the student\u2019s first performance of the song in class. \u00a0Could Floyd actually be comforted by this litany? \u00a0The soaring music seemed to think so, but I wasn\u2019t sure why he seemed to be at peace at the end of the song.<\/p>\n<blockquote>Is it warm, is it soft against your face? \nDo you feel the kind of grace inside the breeze? \nWill there be trees, is there light? \nDoes it hover on the ground? \nDoes it shine from all around or just from you?<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe teacher had given the students a number of exercises to break out of habits and find new facets of the song (I got to help by physically obstructing and glaring at the boy singing \u00a0\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tPoxK66IAnM\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">It\u2019s Hard to Speak My Heart<\/a>\u201d from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Parade_(musical)\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Parade<\/em><\/a>). \u00a0She told the boy playing Floyd that, instead of performing the song as Floyd speaking to God, she wanted him to try again as God speaking to Floyd.<\/p>\n<blockquote>Is it endless and empty and you wander on your own? \nSlowly forget about the folks that you have known \nWater\u2019s rising, bread fill up the air \nFrom moping kitchens everywhere \nFamiliar faces far as you can see, like a family<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe boy had been sprawled out on the floor as Floyd. \u00a0Now, as God, he was crouched down next to where he had lain. \u00a0The boy was a talented actor, and he looked loving and patient. \u00a0I was reminded of something that C.S. Lewis had written in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B002BD2UR0\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B002BD2UR0&linkCode=as2&tag=unequyoked-20\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Mere Christianity<\/em><\/a>, that he can pray only because Christ is beside him, praying with him.<\/p>\n<blockquote>[I]f he is a Christian he knows that what is prompting him to pray is also God: God, so to speak, inside him. But he also knows that all his real knowledge of God comes through Christ, the Man who was God\u2014that Christ is standing beside him, helping him to pray, praying for him. You see what is happening. God is the thing to which he is praying\u2014the goal he is trying to reach. God is also the thing inside him which is pushing him on\u2014the motive power. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed to that goal. So that the whole threefold life of the three-personal Being is actually going on in that ordinary little bedroom where an ordinary man is saying his prayers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSuddenly, as God mouthed the words of Floyd\u2019s little prayer along with him, it seemed like the prayer itself was a gift.<\/p>\n<blockquote>Do we live, is it like a little town? \nDo we get to look back down at who we love? \nAre we above, are we everywhere, are we anywhere at all? \nDo we hear a trumpet call us and we\u2019re by your side?<\/p><\/blockquote>\nGod was giving Floyd the words he needed to be able to reach out at all. \u00a0And instead of the sadness I would have expected the actor to convey, his God seemed to feel something more like delight. \u00a0The actor\u2019s God wasn\u2019t primarily occupied with Floyd\u2019s\u00a0predicament<\/em>, he was wholly consumed with\u00a0Floyd<\/em>. \u00a0The actor\u2019s eyes crinkled up with amusement at the metaphors that came to Floyd. \u00a0There was a profound sense of intimacy and recognition. \u00a0It pleased God to hear Floyd\u2019s prayer and to pray with him, because the prayer was so utterly Floyd, and Floyd would remain Floyd in this moment and after his death. \u00a0His leg was crushed, but his self was alive and shining.<\/p>\n<blockquote>Will I want or will I wish \nFor all the things that I should have done? \nLonging to finish what I only just begun<\/p>\nOr has a shiny truth been waiting there \nFor all the questions everywhere \nIn a world of wondering, suddenly you know \nAnd you will always know<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe boy playing God broke out in a full, proud grin as he sang Floyd\u2019s song. It felt like instead of just observing and loving Floyd, some awareness of his presence had broken in on the person he was sitting vigil for. And even then, Floyd prayed for his homecoming in the language of experiences that he knew.<\/p>\n<blockquote>Will my mama be there waiting for me? \nSmiling like the ways she does \nAnd holding out her arms \nAnd she calls my name \nShe will hold me just the same<\/p><\/blockquote>\nHere was the comfort the underscoring promised. Not just Floyd\u2019s love of his mother and desire to see her again, but his love and trust for her being beautiful and comforting because it reflected the perfect love of God. Where he lay, Floyd didn\u2019t have the eyes to see it fully, or the vision to express it, but he had a vector to move along. And God rejoiced with him in his love and the peculiar way it was refracted by this particular son.<\/p>\nAnd I burst out crying in the rehearsal room.<\/p>\n<blockquote>Only Heaven knows how glory goes \nWhat each of us was meant to be \nIn the starlight, that is what we are<\/p>\nI can see so far<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\u00a0<\/p>\nT-2 days.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About two years ago, long before I converted, a student was working on his performance of \u201cHow Glory Goes\u201d in a musical theatre masterclass that I was sitting in. \u00a0The song is from the musical\u00a0Floyd Collins, based on the life of Floyd Collins, a cave explorer from Kentucky who was trapped in a cave and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":5887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176,177],"tags":[51,178],"class_list":["post-5879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conversion-2","category-spiritual-practice","tag-at-the-theatre","tag-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>"In a world of wondering, suddenly you know"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"About two years ago, long before I converted, a student was working on his performance of "How Glory Goes" in a musical theatre masterclass that I was\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/11\/in-a-world-of-wondering-suddenly-you-know.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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