Clenched
“Most
of these prophets were introverts. Jesus definitely was. He’s never really
doing all that much, if you think about it. He doesn’t even tell His own
stories. He would be fired from most churches today. He’s in a world of great
fear, there’s evil, violence, and need all around him, so He often finds He
needs time alone—in silence, in the desert, on the mountain, on the beach,
beneath the stars—to get strong and patient enough to go back and face Peter’s
lame and endless questions for the tenth time: ‘Is now when we get to be in
charge? Is now when we take over?’”
Anne
Lamott (Dusk, Night, Dawn, p.110; Riverhead Books, Random House, 2021)
Jesus
was an introvert. That is actually a thought I had never contemplated until I
read it in Anne Lamott’s new book. Reading about how things were in His time,
and laying them down beside our time, it seems the only thing that’s changed is
that most of us can read now, and our weapons are more sophisticated. There is
still a climate of fear and violence, and there are still people who think that
being in charge is what they want.
The statements
I’ve heard most from friends and family over the last eighteen months is how tired
everyone is. Even young people complain of being worn out and having no energy.
We somehow don’t associate that level of fatigue with what’s going on around
us. Just the 24/7 continuous barrage of talk, talk, talk wears you out—our bodies
and minds are not equipped to be under this much stress for so long. Our body politic
is crazy, our angry divisions are over the top, our level of violence is astronomical,
and the way we are dealing (or not dealing) with the pandemic is just icing on a
massive anxiety cake. One family I know has had three deaths in the last year
due to covid. Can you even imagine how stressed out they are?
Here’s
a little exercise to do—clench one hand into a fist and just hold it. Hold it
as tight as you can for three minutes. At what point does it begin to hurt? How
hard is it to let it go? That’s what we’re living with except it is total body
and it’s not three minutes, but around the clock. We are, body, mind, and spirit,
clenched into a fist and we have been for more than a year. No wonder we’re so
exhausted.
Like Jesus, we need a
little retreat from the day-to-day demands placed on us by our current
situation. We need a reprieve from all the anger and blame, from all the
protests and violence, and from all the worry, concern, and grief that comes with a
pandemic. We need to take some deep breaths and find a quiet place to simply be alone with ourselves. Even fifteen minutes a day to “go apart and pray” as He
frequently did would make a big difference in our overall health and vitality. Heck!
I’ll bet Jesus even took naps!
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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