Listen to your Life
by Fr. Bill Van Oss
Recently someone sent me an article written by Michael Gerson about Frederick Buechner. Buechner was a popular Christian apologist, preacher and novelist. Gerson reported that when Buechner was asked to summarize the single greatest insight of his prolific career, he replied: “listen to your life.”
Gerson went on:
“Life’s temptation, of course, is to move from place to place on cruise control, which means, for me, focusing on failures in the past or worries about the future. So how, some questioners would persist with Buechner, do we start getting into the habit of fully inhabiting our experience? ‘Pay attention to moments,’ Buechner said, when ‘unexpected tears come to your eyes and what may trigger them.’ He was talking about those sudden upwellings of emotion we get from the sublimity of nature or art, when we see a whale breaching, or are emotionally ambushed by a line in a film or poem. We are led toward truth and beauty by a lump in the throat.” (washingtonpost.com)
I love the thought of “getting into the habit of fully inhabiting our experience” and “(paying) attention to the moments” when unexpected tears come. It made me think of all the moving moments I have experienced during worship: a soloist singing a song that brings a tear to my eye, a passage of scripture heard in a new way, a resounding hymn sung with gusto, a smile on someone’s face at the communion rail, a child running up the aisle, an usher helping someone up, an uplifting or challenging sermon, the sweetness of the wine…
God moments. Moments when the grace of God breaks through in most ordinary, and yet profound, ways. They happen all the time, if we can free ourselves from focusing on failures or fears and listen to our lives.
Peace,
Bill+
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