Singing New Godspell Songs!

Lurking Close At Hand

Whatever may be the tensions
and the stresses of a particular day,
there is always lurking close at hand
the trailing beauty of forgotten joy
or unremembered peace.
Howard Thurman, American preacher and
writer in his book “Meditations of the Heart”

There are bad days and then there are “bad” days.  We all have them.  Actually, many people seem to think and act as if most days are bad days.  So there’s precious little joy and gratitude evident in their behavior.  For there’s not much reason, it appears, to laugh and smile, to sing and dance, to praise and pray.

True, the real world is often a rough, tough place, full of disappointment, loss, tragedy, and all kinds of pain and suffering.  And so our cries, our laments, our grumbling, and maybe even curses seem to be appropriate daily behavior.  NONETHELESS, by faith we are assured, and we do believe, that always lurking close at hand are joy and peace!  And that’s because the Spirit of the living God and risen Christ is always present, just as promised and just as given on that first Day of Pentecost!

God’s Always Lurking Close At Hand, And So Are Gifts of Joy and Peace!

That’s Godspell. That’s promise made and kept.

But somehow we sense that all this lurking close at hand of God, joy, and peace is just that, “lurking.”  It’s as if both God and Godspell promises remain hidden or only faintly apparent.  And in some ways that’s true, which says more about our inability to observe than about God’s ability to reveal.

On our “bad” days, when God seems absent, we wonder: “how and about what could I possibly pray; and why should I even bother to do so?”  The answers, however, are all around us and given in many ways.  The Tenth Century Archbishop of Tours, Hildebert Lavardin, reminded Christians that always “God is above, presiding; below, sustaining; and within, filling.”  Christians also understand that prayer is the central way we both recognize and respond to the active presence of God.

The Rev. Martha Grace Reese talks about prayer as the regular exercise, the weightlifting, of Christian life.  She suggests that “we need to keep doing the heavy lifting, prayer, so that the Holy Spirit can turn up on a dime and open our eyes and open our ears.”  And it is those faithful open eyes and ears, even on our worst of days, which affirm God’s always lurking close at hand, and so are gifts of joy and peace!

In turn, such faithful eye and ear-opening prayer opens the way for us to cooperate with the ever-present God in becoming a people for whom “Sharing + Faith = Evangelism & Mission!”