It happens once and a while because it is part of its nature. It knows only the rules of jazz and the shape of the rivers. It is a flow that is ordered by where it is going-its resolve is the only honest knowing it has. It begins trusting that an end is possible while yet unseen. It embraces journey and the trails that guide mostly north. So indirect is its posturing that it is able to swim in the chaotic waters bringing order as it surfs the breaths of the ocean.
It is impromptu.
And I am not sure this is the place I am most comfortable but it is often the place I find myself viewing the world from. Ill be set deep in thought trying to wrap truth around reality as if I am setting them up on a date hoping they might marry quickly by nights end. A friend, who has in many ways been a guide through the chaos of ideas toward practice, offered me words that rest heavy still today. He said to, “organize your life.” He did not mean to be structured and up-tight and mean. Rather organize your life… this means saying the word ‘no’ and creating liminal space where God might fill and be fulfilling. The world turns without you and God is a sustaining God and our participation in him is a sustaining sort of thing. He introduced me to Volf and this participatory view of our interaction with the Trinity. When you are saying yes to the right things your reality gets wrapped around truth and they begin that relational covenant then lasts forever. The nature of relationship is an interplay of impromptu and consistent choices that begin to narrative your life together.
Life has all sorts of twists and turns, backpedaling and jolts forward. Like a jazz riff. It is a dance then, of the now and the unknown spaces that rest all around you. To barrow the image painted in the film ‘One California Day’, it is as if the surges of God’s grace and love come from distant lands and are thrown to the the surface by the lands abrupt ordering. As a kingdom person I get to participate in the final moments of this journey, with artistry and life being a singular action as I mount my board, the stage of life.
