So much sharpness in the world today:
bare tree branches that pierce the sky
like forked lightning,
zebu* horns poking the air
like staples,
headless palms erect as straight pins.
Hawk wings slice the atmosphere,
machetes crack through vines,
bike spokes whirr.
Even the blades of grass
have a cutting edge.
If air were solid it would be in rags:
knifed, torn, poked to bits.
Instead, intangible, it yields, evades,
readjusts, moves into new spaces,
stays whole.
Rigidity has its price.
Words cut, too: sharp retorts,
assumptions gouging holes
in my assurance.
Quills of self-defense and anger
hook deep into my heart.
All too solid, I bleed.
I must learn the art of
reframing the jibe,
evading the rancor,
yielding the unessential point.
See the razor edge for what it is:
just one side,
and useful in its place.
Surround the perpetrator
with empathy.
Move into spaces of emptiness
left in the wake of the thrust.
Do what is necessary
for life and healing,
like the air that I breathe,
like the One in whom
I live and move and have my being:
love my enemy.
I wrote this meditation 24 years ago during a dry season, and it is still humming in my prayers when sharp challenges continue to hurt. Yes, we become new, reborn, when we come to Jesus, but complete transformation is a progressive ongoing journey. And I have seen God empower me to react to “razor edges” in increasingly peaceful ways that reflect his light. I am often amazed—that was not how I used to be! I am even learning to “love my enemy”!
Dallas Willard is an author I consider one of my mentors. His book Living in Christ’s Presence is one that I return to often, to review. He makes a point that the kingdom of God is among us, we are already citizens in it. Here is one key truth about how we are to live:
“Jesus says in Matthew 6:33, ‘Seek above all the kingdom of God and its righteousness’ (paraphrase). . . Our first priority then is to seek that kingdom and its righteousness. Find out what God is doing where you are, and identify with it. Follow what you know to be the case, what you know to be true, of the righteousness of the kingdom. . . Let’s remember that God’s kingdom is God in action. . . It’s what God is doing where we are. . . What is God doing now where I am? I am in a face-to-face relationship with an individual. What is God doing there?”[1]
Maybe you make a remark that the other person takes as a political stance they disapprove. Their reaction is to label you. Or maybe they take something you say to mean something you never intended. How to respond? What is God doing in that situation? He loves that other person, whether they are in his Family or still broken in this broken world. Remember this, Dallas says:
“I am seeking the kingdom of God when I am in a face-to-face relationship with another person. It doesn’t matter if this other person is my enemy. I am given, under God, the ability to love and bring blessing to that person, no matter who it may be. The most important people are the ones closest to us, and that’s where we can know the kingdom in a way we cannot know it anywhere else.”[2]
I am breathing kingdom air wherever I am—the Spirit, Breath of God, Counselor, is in me. So it’s like walking in muggy air that weighs you down, but you feel a cool breeze soothe you. He is there. Call out to him and ask what to do. As you practice kingdom values, it will become more and more natural to:
Surround the perpetrator
with empathy.
Move into spaces of emptiness
left in the wake of the thrust.
Do what is necessary
for life and healing,
like the air that I breathe:
like the One in whom
I live and move and have my being:
love my enemy.
[1] Dallas Willard, Living in Christ’s Presence (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 2014), 74,75.
[2] Ibid., 75,76.
*Zebu: a species or subspecies of domestic cattle originating in South Asia. Zebu, like many Sanga cattle breeds, differs from taurine cattle by a fatty hump on their shoulders, a large dewlap, and sometimes drooping ears. Wikipedia
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