I love
reading mysteries. I enjoy the mental
puzzles they present as the intrigues unfold.
I enjoy pondering the truths and lies that make for a good mystery by
sending us readers down numerous rabbit trails that have nothing to do with the
crime. I love believable characters with
depth and complexity.
I prefer the
kinds of mysteries set in little English villages because their murders are more
about the intrigue than the blood and guts murder itself, and usually contain
little, if any, swearing or sexual content.
If a plot is intricate, the characterization interesting, and the
setting one in which I could picture myself, I can get lost and finish a book
in a day. So when I picked up a book
this week that had all of those, I was hooked!
The murder plot was
set in an abbey, of all places! Not just
any abbey, but one hidden away on an island in Quebec, unknown and practically
unreachable, inhabited by a cloister of monks everyone thought no longer
existed. Until they made a recording of
Gregorian chants and gained worldwide attention. Everything went downhill from there.
The book was
riveting and I loved every minute of it, was sorry when I was finished and had to
put it down. But in the end, it wasn’t
the story itself that still has me thinking about it. It was it’s setting in an abbey and not just
any abbey, but in an abbey which was home to Gregorian chant singing
monks.
The author’s
description of the beauty and solitude of the abbey, with the worshipful voices
of monks filling it with joyful sound, spoke to the longing in my heart for
that same kind of solitude. I could even picture the place. The coolness of the stone walls, the
simplicity of the furnishings, the smell of incense, the quiet of the monks who, when they weren’t
singing, were absolutely silent. I could
imagine the enclosure within the walls where the animals were kept, and another
which was a garden. I could picture the
monks in their robes and sun hats working quietly outdoors at their various
chores. I wanted to BE there!
If you’ve
read my blogs before then you know that I am a quiet person. Any impression you have from knowing me
personally that causes you to believe I am NOT an introvert is a work of the
Lord. He made me to be a quiet and
contemplative person, but being a follower of Jesus necessitates loving people
and being with them as well. So over the
years that I have walked with Him, He has also formed me into a people
person. So I teach, and counsel women,
and work with pre-teens and teens, but because I am an introvert, in order to
do so, I have to recharge my batteries, and for me that necessitates some
solitude.
So when I read
about the abbey, that’s where my heart went, to my need for some solitude and
their setting for solitude sounded like something I would love – not as a life style because I don’t
believe we’re called to that as Christians – but certainly on the short term,
as a battery charging station!
Reading about
those monks stirred up a longing – not only for solitude – but for me, what
solitude provides – a chance to draw closer to the Lord without any
distractions.
What distracts
you from your relationship with the Lord?
Lots of things get in the way of mine.
The lack
of solitude. I live under the same roof with 3 generations
of Elwoods, and I love them all dearly. But,
as you can imagine, my life is kind of people intensive. In order for our situation to work we need to be considerate of others and that means compromise. We eat together and then we try and maintain our own family space. When I was younger this kind of constant motion and concern for others would
have made me grouchy. Thank the Lord,
that doesn’t happen anymore, but the activity of others under the same roof
makes quiet and solitude a challenge - for all of us.
My computer.
The computer has been a joy. It has
taken my teaching preparation to a whole new level of convenience. No more notes in longhand and lots of time saved! It has enabled me to write blogs about
spiritual things and about Jesus that people all over the world read! How cool is that?
It has
enabled me to reconnect with people I went to high school with more than 40
years ago! I can keep in touch with
relatives in other parts of the country.
I can communicate with new friends. I can receive invitations and view photos of events in which I've participated. I love it for all of those things!
But on the
other hand, my computer has also become the bane of my existence, because I find it so hard to exert
any self-control over the time I spend on it.
I turn it on when I get up and off when I go to bed and in between I’m
continually checking e mail, Facebook, my blog status and wasting way too much time
playing Bookworm.
I’ve told myself I should just check it in the morning and at
night and turn it off in between but I don’t do it. Like the Sirens in the Odessey, it exerts a call I seem not to be able to resist! I’m old enough to be able to look back on my
life without my computer and see the difference. I spend WAY too much time on my computer in
empty pursuits. In many ways I’m ashamed to say, it has become an idol.
Just plain
spiritual laziness. There are Christians I know who attribute all
of the negative things that impact our lives to the work of Satan. I don’t mean to downplay that at all. He is a real enemy who takes delight in
derailing us Christians, and worse. But I can do a
pretty good number on myself when I let my human nature lead and not the
Spirit. I don’t do anything “bad”
necessarily, but I can certainly not do the things my heart wants and needs to
do, like spend time pursuing my relationship with Jesus, and being in prayer. Anything can get in the way of time with the
Lord, even good things – TV news, the gym, breakfast with friends, a spur of
the moment suggestion from my granddaughter – even things I hate, like washing
the floor, or doing the laundry!
I read a verse
this morning from Psalm 25. Speaking of
the Lord, David says, in verse 12:
“(The Lord) will
instruct him in the way chosen for him.”
I can
remember the ways in the past when the Lord instructed me in the ways He chose
FOR ME.
As little ones, when my
girls napped, and later after they began school – and I had no computer – the Lord impassioned my heart to draw
near to Him. I might have dust bunnies
drifting across the floor and my laundry might not have been done, but it didn’t
matter. It was just the Lord and me, in my
bedroom, enjoying one another’s company.
I remember another
time in my life when for a long season He called me away to a park where I would read Richard
Foster’s book, “Celebration of Discipline”, and follow it up with a sweet time
of talking with the Lord as I walked around the lake.
Most recently,
when our church was between pastors and there was so much healing that needed
to take place in our church, the Lord called me to a season of prayer. For months, once a week I would go to the church and walk
around the sanctuary praying for the man the Lord would call to shepherd us and
for the healing of our church body.
A repeat of those times were what I
longed for when I read about that abbey and its monks with their vow of silence
and their worshipful praise expressed in Gregorian chant. I long for the solitude that brings me so
near to the Lord that I can HEAR Him instruct me in the way He has chosen for
me NOW, in this season of my life.
At this moment,
I’m not sure how I will find the solitude I need, but I know I will be thinking and praying about
it, and the One who instructs me in the way chosen for ME, will unveil it.
Psalm
25:4-5:
“Show me your ways, O
LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God
my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.”
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