"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Paul to the persecuted at Philippi (2:5-11)

12 February 2011

Observations from the deep inner workings of my mind.

Last night, I had a dream. Since I almost never remember my dreams, that's notable in itself. I dreamed that we were at clergy conference, the annual social/educational/spiritual gathering of clergy around the diocese. Personally, I almost always enjoy clergy conference and look forward to it every year. Don't ask me who "we" in the dream was, because I really don't know. Just people, a few of whom are real in my life, the rest were just kind of mental filler.

I dreamed that we were at that point at the end of the day where everyone kind of gathers for social time. Speakers have spoken, prayers have been said, food has been eaten, and skits have been performed. Except that instead of gathering for social time, everyone kind of divided up into committees. And in my room, there were half a dozen of us or so, meeting about whatever we were meeting about. It didn't seem important, or at least my friend and I weren't paying attention. We had our laptops out and were each getting reports in from people in other meetings. After a while, we ended up spending more of our attention alternately turning our laptops so that each could read the others' reports. We were more interested in what went on in the next room than what we were supposed to be attending.

And I wonder if that's sort of the temptation in this era, if we're in danger of spending too much time wondering what the other "side" is going to do, what court documents are going to be filed, whose strategy is what, and not spending our time on more valuable and even pleasant pursuits. When we could be enjoying one another's company, deep in the complexities of life and ministry, we are snooping around to see what's going on in the other room.

Maybe, just maybe, the innerworkings of my mind are a metaphor to which we ought to pay some attention.

Or maybe I just have boring mundane dreams.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks, Tara. I'm reminded of the line from the John Lennon song-- "Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans." Or, on the Psalmist's better page, "This is the day that the LORD hath made: we will rejoice and be glad in it."

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