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“Good Morning, Oscar.” The man behind the desk spoke those words to the man coming through the door. They are common words, perhaps not worthy of notice. Yet, I did notice them.
Listening to them, I could tell that they had spoken many times. Today was not the first day that the man behind the desk had said, “Good Morning, Oscar.” Oscar’s morning routine brought him to this place on a regular basis. Oscar was not in a strange place. This was a stop he often made.
I realized almost instantly that the words that I had heard were a familiar and frequent beginning to the day for both of these men, when I heard Oscar say, “Good Morning, Sam.” Yet, I could not help but ask myself, how do they know each other? What makes this seemingly daily encounter so comfortable for them? Do either of them remember the first day Oscar came through the door? Maybe they knew each other before that day. I don’t think they went to school together. Oscar seems a fair bit older than Sam. They could be neighbors, or maybe they go to church together. Maybe not — maybe the only way they know each other is because Oscar stops by each morning to deliver the mail.
If it is the case that they only know each other through this daily delivery of mail, the novelty of this relationship is only heightened. Oscar and Sam know each other. Somewhere along the way they took the time to exchange names. Oscar is not just the guy who delivers the mail, and Sam is not just the guy that it gets handed to. They are two men with names, Oscar and Sam. They know each other.
Today they chat briefly. They do not always chat. Sometimes Oscar is in a hurry or Sam is busy. Maybe they will chat tomorrow. They might discuss the weather or some other happening around town. I wonder how well they know each other. If Oscar had a family member in the hospital, would he tell Sam about it? Would Sam want to know? I cannot know for sure, but I wonder. Maybe they would share such news.
The people we know and who know us give us a sense of place. Our relationships locate us. They shape us and make us who we are. They are where our lives happen.
Yet, if all of our relationships are only with other people, then we are not complete. We are dislocated and out of place. The lives we were created to live are not being fully lived where they were intended to be lived.
God created us to be social. Yes, we need other people in our lives. We need to nurture and care for our relationship with others because those relationship nurture and shape us.
God also created us to be spiritual. We need to know God and be known by God if we are to be fully relational human beings; alive to and living in all the places and ways that God hoped we would when God created us.
We need a time in our day when we speak to God. Maybe it is morning, afternoon, or evening. The when is not nearly as important as the time each day when we say, “Good Day, God,” and in the still silence, we hear God say our name in reply. We hear God when we give God the opportunity to speak to us, to call us by name, and to speak our name.
We can chat with God if we need to, or we can just listen to what God has to say to us. There may be days when spending time with God is rather mundane. That is not unusual. There will also be days when the circumstances of our lives are so pressing and urgent that we will want to spend all of our time with God, telling God about our situation. God is always there to listen.
The relationship is deepened over the course of many days...the days when our praying seems mundane, the days when it is urgent, and all the other kinds of praying days we have lived that have served to nurture and form our relationship with God. There is a cumulative effect. Gradually, day by day, little by little, we are knowing God and being known by God.
What we have with God is a relationship. That relationship locates us. It gives us a place to be alive and to live the life that God always hoped we would live — a place and a life in which God knows our name and we know God.
Joy and peace,
Ed
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