GIVE IT UP FOR LENT
In Bill Moyer’s 1995 book entitled The Language of Life: A Festival of Poets one of the poets he interviews is Rita Dove. During that interview she shares the poem “The First Book”, which is about a person daring to read his or her first book. However, if you substituted that first book for being open to the Holy Spirit, the same poem would apply. Listen:
Open it.
Go ahead, it won’t bite.
Well…maybe a little.
More a nip, like. A tingle.
It’s pleasurable, really.
You see, it keeps on opening.
You may fall in.
Sure, it’s hard to get started;
remember learning to use
knife and fork? Dig in:
you’ll never reach bottom.
It’s not like it’s the end of the world –
just the world as you think
you know it.
Poetry, like music, has a way of cutting through all of the filters and defenses we have developed for our adult lives. Children have not yet fully developed those filters and this is why Jesus tells us that, “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Mark 10:15). Again, Jesus is telling us that “The kingdom of God is near,” but, unless we open ourselves up to its coming, it will pass us by in this life. To receive the kingdom like a child is to let down the defenses and filters so the Holy Spirit can have His way with you. This is what the poem is talking about with respect to the world of reading, but it is equally true with God’s kingdom. The poem says it correctly, “You see, it keeps on opening. You may fall in.” This is where the child has it right; the child simply trusts God. There are no pre-conditions.
The child allows him or herself to “just fall in”, typically, the adult has a lot of trouble letting go. Adults have “constructed” their world, and as psychologists will tell you, if you try to remove one Lincoln Log from the personality construct, the adult perceives that the entire house will fall down. This is where Rita Dove is absolutely correct with her last words, “It’s not like it’s the end of the world – just the world as you think…you know it.”
The season of Lent challenges you give up some of that construct and bend a knee to God’s Spirit instead of your own spirit.
Bless you in your journey, Pastor Mark