Slow Down

by Benjamin Whetstone

Dec. 10, 2024

Isaiah 40:5, 55:12 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together …  For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Back in my college religion classes I learned that Judaism, and Christianity which came from it, were different than other religions in their conception of time. Whereas many religions have a circular, repetitive way of framing existence, Jews and Christians tell our story linearly, with a beginning, middle, and end. This isn’t just an academic distinction – our ideas about time shape our understanding of what is possible. We are not stuck where we are, we are free to move. Our story is done yet! The expectation that God will change us and the world is at the heart of our faith -- the best parts are yet to come.

Putting all the exciting parts of the Christian faith in the future fits well with my natural bent, and maybe yours. Maybe like me you write lists inside of lists of everything that needs to be done? Are you the kind who knows that there are 15 more days before Christmas and 37 gifts left to purchase? Always thinking of what we need to get ready for, what might be up ahead. So it makes sense that for some of us the joy of the Spirit, true peace in Christ, would be up ahead, too. Is that what we mean when we talk of waiting with anticipation for the advent of our Lord, who changes things?

Once, about 5 years ago, when my life had pretty well fallen apart due to divorce and broken relationships, I went camping with a friend. As we talked around the campfire late at night, I reckoned with the fact that I was more to blame than I was comfortable with. I had been for years a mess of anxiety about countless impossible to name worries, running from thought to thought, coping strategy to coping strategy. As I sat there I realized I was always fidgety, mind always running, braced against one thing or another. For the first time, really, I realized how my “natural state of being” was affecting me and others.

Then a silly miracle happened. Small and slightly embarrassing, but real. My friend decided to play some music to lighten the mood. We sat, listening quietly. And as I’m prone to do, I misheard the lyrics. The singer Bill Callahan sang the phrase “Naked Souls” over and over and over, but what I heard was “TAKE IT SLOW,” over and over and over. In my mind the song said to me, very clearly:

“Slow down. Your God is nowhere but here. Breathe. Love is all, so love now.”

We are all waiting. For some of us, we wait with anticipation good things on the horizon – a new job or some happiness that’s just around the corner. For others, we await heavier ends – parents in decline, a tumor that has come back. And as Christians we do believe, truly, that God is making a new thing in us and in the world.

But in our restlessness, impatience, grief, and worry, as we wait for God to bring all things together, waiting for the future to come, kindle this true knowledge:

Prayer: God, somehow, waits with us as we wait and watch together for God to appear. The very act of waiting is blessed with the presence and peace of Christ, communion even now with the one who is making all things new. We will see that great coming together, we and God, and we will sing, and we will clap our hands.