The Cave Through the cave of the winding way of my story you came after me. By the middle point, I had lost my name— the child within only a memory. I wasn't sure if I would be safe. I was only sure of your pursuit so I ran. The further in the darker it became. Ouch! Now pain. And You said my name. Everything. Stopped. At the expanse of Your Word the cave crumbled I'd never be the same.
Journal with me.
How would you describe yourself apart from your roles and functions? What about your essence is a gift to the world?
Some thoughts. How about a story?
The two sat down for lunch for the first time. H looked across the table and asked, “So, who are you? Tell me about yourself.” The graduate student began explaining their current year in grad school, professional hopes, and connections. H’s confused reaction signaled that another question was necessary: “Who are you really?”
It is so easy to instrumentalize people, and even ourselves: That person is the person who teaches children; there is the delivery man; there is the doctor; I am the pastor.
But who are we really? Who really are the people surrounding us?
A famous Jewish theologian, Martin Buber, noticed an important distinction between “I-Thou” relationships and “I-it” relationships.1
Our relationship with a spouse or a close friend: I-Thou.
Our relationship with the cashier at the grocery store: I-It.
I-It relationships are utilitarian—people become more or less like instruments.
Sometimes without noticing, we get so enmeshed in our social settings and the expectations put on us that we forget we too are a thou.
I marvel at the snail shell—but why aren’t I marveling at myself? Whose eyes are seeing this shell? Is this all perhaps a miracle? Am I a miracle?
In the poem above, I describe God’s pursuit. I think sometimes God’s movement toward us is frightening, not in an ominous way, but because of the unknowns of it all. What could it mean that the Creator would dwell with me? Surely this must be transactional! Surely I will be used!
And then God speaks our name and reminds us of who we truly are.
And we finally find rest.
What if God’s agenda is your restoration? How would you walk through today if you knew that somewhere in the deepest part of you, God speaks your name and invites you to be the gift that you already are?
Get specific. How? When? Where?
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My weekly poem and journal prompts are now free. I’d been experimenting with a paid-subscriber model for these—but somewhere in that experiment, I discovered I wanted to offer this work freely. So that’s what I’m doing. Thanks for reading and going deeper with me today. Stay tuned for more information about my upcoming prayer and liturgy writing circle, where we’ll craft a prayer of consecration for the big important things and the small important things.
See Buber’s I and Thou, 1923.