FootprintsintheWind.com

I have seen a couple of things in Buber in the last few days that I had not noticed before. On page 42 of I and Thou he says that this life, this spirit “continually approaches and touches them.” It is active, it continues all the time. On page 51 he says it another way: “The spirit is truly ‘in its own realm’ if it can confront the world that is unlocked to it, give itself to this world, and in its relation save both itself and the world.” It is in the continual confronting that the world becomes unlocked to the Thou. It says that our job is to sigh if we must and then keep approaching, touching, confronting, opening our very being to being approached, touched and confronted. We need to be there, inviting touch.

:- Doug.

Last evening, Day Two of the OST at our church, leads me to this reflection:

Still there is a disbelief that we really are the church. This is the core of what is happening here, and what will be happening. The core is conversation. S asked who will arrange the funding? The only answer is, you are in charge. If it happens or it does not happen, you were in charge. Perhaps here is the point for Rumi’s poem about the plow in the field.

The message to me is plain: if you find yourself saying “The church should do this,” remember, you are the church. You can make it happen. Not just in the far off future. Now.

So what really has been going on? Who are we now? We are people who know we can change things, and people who can change. This is what it means to be born again: to be born again each day, to see what plow needs our shoulder today, and to become a new person, from the heart out. We are seeing the light that G-d put inside each one of us–not just in ourselves, but in the others in this room and those who meet here on Sunday.

Who are we now? We are never, and can never be, the same persons we were yesterday, especially when we meet, truly meet, each other as persons, as Thous and not Its. Then the other person’s spark ignites our own and the old dies to make room for the new to be born. It happens everyday. It is as normal as life and as unusual as people actually living life.

:- Doug.