Reflection: Restlessness

Every pilgrim Jew sang this psalm with chin and hope uplifted.

It’s an uphill song – for them, uphill to Jerusalem.*

Uphill to where God met with his people.

For us, uphill to where, one day, the Creator will liberate all creation from its bondage to frustration and decay.

Uphill, to where we, heirs with Christ, will fully share in the freedom and glory of our Father God.**

I remember uphill as a kid. Uphill to the school-bus stop. There were these deep-wide stairs that snaked uphill. There were monsoon floods and slick slugs, restricting raincoats, books and bags…and never enough hurry in our steps. Ugh!

Uphill. If it’s not the destination that’s got us restless, it’s the journey.

There is a place where the sidewalk ends,

And before the street begins,

(playfully but prophetically lilts the Jewish-American poet Shel Silverstein),

And there the grass grows soft and white,

And there the sun burns crimson bright,

And there the moon-bird rests from his flight

To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black.

And the dark street winds and bends.

Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow

We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,

And watch where the chalk-white arrows go,

To the place where the sidewalk ends.

We’re designed for a world larger than ourselves; yearn for a glory beyond ourselves. Some call it holy discontent — a wake-up call not to settle in but to be an uphill-pilgrim.

Prayer:  Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we sail too close to the shore.  Disturb us, Lord, when in the abundance of thing we possess. we have lost our thirst for the water of life… Having fallen in love with life we have ceased to dream, we have allowed our vision of a new heaven to dim.  Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly… we ask you to push back the horizon of our hopes. And to push us into the future of strength, courage, hope, and love.  This we ask in the name of our captain, who is Jesus Christ. (Attributed to Sir Francis Drake)

*(or perhaps uphill to the Temple; one of the 15 Songs of Ascent – one for each Temple step.)

**see Romans 8:18-23