Bloated T-day

It’s Thanksgiving Day here in the US and I’m already full; I woke up full.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” So the disciples began to say to one another, “No one brought him anything to eat, did they?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to complete his work. Don’t you say, ‘There are four more months and then comes the harvest?’ I tell you, look up and see that the fields are already white for harvest!” (John 4:31-35 NET)

Missing a meal won’t hurt your body much. Despite my enthusiasm for food, even I manage to lose track now and then and miss a meal. We who are spiritually aware operate on multiple levels simultaneously. The body has its own chatter, as does the reasoning mind. But then there’s the moral considerations of the heart along with the ineffable moves of the Spirit in our spirits. Each of those is theoretically separate faculties, but the mind can have a tough time figuring out which is which and struggles to organize a meaningful response.

I went through US Army Basic Training twice. It’s a long story, but during that second episode, one of the few intelligent instructors said something about watching your bunkmate climb inside his locker and shutting the door. It’s more than needing time alone; it’s the necessity of processing things. Basic Training is meant to churn out thousands of minimally conditioned folks in the shortest possible amount of time. It’s supposed to be cost effective, but the failure rate is atrociously high. Not in terms of wash-outs, but it’s more a problem with those passed through who never actually adapted. The Army is a place where the few normal people can excel or go nuts, and often both. Too many people have no idea how to process reality, so they keep dumping huge amounts back at us regular folks who do process.

Jesus went often into the wilderness areas for prayer and contemplation. Near as we can figure, His ministry ran about three years. His work seemed more days in solitude or alone with His select few associates, punctuated with brief periods of hectic activity among the masses. A critical element in His work, particularly the miracles, was restoring divine moral justice. That is, He put things back where they should have been if only Israel had obeyed the Covenant. The blessings of covenant obedience included reasonable levels of prosperity, security and health, but most important was social stability. Those were summed up in the word shalom. Jesus put some shalom back into the lives of the people who didn’t have the power to influence the bad leadership of religion and government. Those people suffered from the curse of others’ disobedience.

We note the Gospel writers often mention in parabolic language how Jesus felt compassion for the sheep of Israel. In moral terms, they were scattered by evil shepherds who refused to shepherd them.

In our virtual world, it can be much the same. On FB, some of my friends are like bleating sheep. They are obviously concerned about a lot of things, scampering from one threat to another, so they don’t feed on grace and don’t drink from the Spirit. It’s really hard to project a shepherd’s presence in the virtual atmosphere, yet people tell me they can sense it. So while some of my FB friends post tons of distracting shit, I try to be a lot more selective. I’m trying to restore some peace and open their minds to the other faculties God gave us for handling this world.

Most of the time I don’t react to the noise. If someone asks for a response, I’ll gladly give it. However, most of them are too busy scampering around a jillion different competing issues and posting tons of links, images, etc. It takes time and my own sense of internal order to filter through it all. It’s a load of crap mostly, but how else can I feed the sheep? How else do I get their attention to things that really matter? I have to tolerate a lot of crowding with unwashed bodies and senseless chatter and constant interruptions of my own needs.

Be strong, for the fields are white unto harvest.