What?? – how did the days of this week disappear like vapour and it is already Friday? What has your week consisted of? Mine seems to have included a lot of phone calls, quick conversations, preparing for a meeting or wrapping up a study group and, of course, never ending emails. Along with that, as I work through the details following my beloved’s death, I am caught up in forms and paperwork. Sigh – not my favourite thing.
So, here is the question for this Friday afternoon… How do we find the Spirit in the drudgery of everyday? Where is the breath of God offering whispers of change or good news or comfort? How does paperwork inspire us as Christ-follower? What? Too much, you say, for a Friday afternoon. Well yes, it could be deep or it could be the idle wandering of thought as you run the vacuum, stroll the grocery aisle or drive the kids to a lesson. Where is God in the midst of the everyday?
For me, God has often been in the interaction with others. God is found between the sentences of conversation or in the sigh that comes with worry. God is in the cleaning up of coffee cups and in the serving out of food. God is in the heat of conflict and in the moment of reconciliation. Given that, it is not surprising that one of my current favourite hymns is “In the Quiet Curve of Evening”. The hymn writer lists the many times and ways that God is present. A few of them are – “in the sinking of the days”, “in the lapses of my breathing”, “in the cracks between the stars”, “the mystery of my hungers”, “the cloud of my unknowing”; such beautiful expressions of God’s presence, followed in each verse with the refrain, “You are there, you are there, you are there.”
So where is God for you this Friday afternoon? Right there, beside you, within you, around you, before you, behind you, above you, below you.
