Stating the Obvious

Stating the obvious never makes sense to me, unless of course it is what you need to do for clarification or legal documentation purposes. It seems so devoid of thought- of the intellectual ability that God gave us when he created our minds. So often conversation with others seems to revolve around what is immediately observable and well, obvious without need for verbal comment. Perhaps it's a manifestation of great amounts of sensing being used. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but personally, I eventually find the lack of something more to be boring and limiting. Why stop at step one when there is so much more?

In my room, which was formerly a theological library and is now a fine art and personal affects storage site, there is a stack of journals from various family members. In these journals, daily happenings are described in the most straightforward, concise way possible. Content includes who came to visit and when, what the weather was like, what birds were sighted that day, who had their birthday, etc. The authors were not elderly when writing, I assure you.

When conversation stalls and people don't know what to talk about it, why not take a leap sometime and instead of talking about the weather, the decor or what you are going to do that week it might be time to take a leap into the unknown and go deeper, to ask what their opinion is on a current happening, why they like something, how something has changed them, what advice they could give on a certain topic etc.  Or maybe just silence could happen? A time for silence, when all fruitful and aimless chatter ceases...

" Silence does not mean dumbness, as speech does not mean chatter. Dumbness does not create solitude and chatter does not create fellowship."  - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Grace

Dear Heart, Soul and Brain,

It is time to remember that God's grace is for the annoying, downright hurtful and inhumane. God's grace covers all. For some reason it is easier for me to extend and remember God's grace in the really difficult situations, to forgive the big things and remember that Christ died on the cross for the murderer and the thief. Yet it's the seemingly smaller things that make it harder for me to recognize  my need to forgive and respond in love, to remember that Christ died for that uncalled for comment, passive aggressive behavior or disrespectful action. I am to be ever transformed by the renewing of my mind and heart through Christ Jesus in me. So this means that right now that I will forgive bossiness, passive aggressiveness, assumptive words and actions and those who act with less than genuine motive. I will not respond in kind. I will forgive and pray for them, remembering all that Christ forgave me. I will lay these things before the cross where Christ's blood covers all - yesterday, today and tomorrow. 

• ...bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

 Colossians 3:13