Author Confessions: Savoring the sacred
With the advent of social media, we went from blogs sharing life, ideas, hacks, and recipes, to people sharing their breakfast or a new outfit or doing fun things. Periodically, you’d get the serious: the accidents, the terrible diagnosis, or the cries for help financially or emotionally.
In some ways, now we get it all and at a much faster pace. And often the mundane that sometimes puzzles me. People sharing about things that really don’t matter much in the scheme of life: like imitating a dance move.
When I started to look for a new life-partner, I did tell a few of my closest friends but no one else. When I found one who ticked all the right boxes, I still didn’t share with many people. It’s weird to say, in your fifties, “I have a boyfriend.” I also wanted the relationship to proceed without undue expectations from others.
In many ways, it felt sacred. I wanted to savor the sacred. I wanted to nurture the relationship without the outward stressors or awkwardness. Kind of like when I start spring plants in the basement. Eventually I start exposing them to the outside during the day to “harden” them, in hopes that when I finally plant them in the ground, they will thrive.
My new relationship was tender, strange, and wonderful. Tender because we had both come out of deeply painful marriages. Strange because we were both learning a new person and defining a new way of relating and developing trust. Wonderful, because we continually saw God at work in so many ways that six years later, we still frequently recount His work. Savoring the sacred.
There are many musings that could find their way to social media as I ponder and process life but often they remain unspoken, and might even make it to my prayer journal, but nothing beyond that. Especially as I ponder the things of God. Perhaps what I’m reading in Scripture, or something that comes up as my husband and I discuss life and the craziness of the world around us.
There are many profound and oftentimes silly interactions in our marriage that will likely never be shared online, again, because I want to savor the sacred. There is deep joy and love, but it doesn’t come to social media because in many ways, I’m savoring the sacred.
On Memorial Day I went outside to my backyard. I had been working and the sun was shining, grass still damp from recent rains, and the birds were flitting around as my dogs explored. Momma Robin protested when they got too close to her nest. There was peace and quiet in our little slice of heaven, a peace I had never had a chance to enjoy in my previous homes. I don’t deserve this. There are people around the world struggling to survive, living through the uncertainty and terrors of war or dictatorial regimes. Yet, somehow, due to the sacrifices of those who fought and died for our freedom here in the United States, I am able to experience this peace. Savoring the sacred.
I can’t thank those who have gone before. I can thank God for His blessing and I recognize that it could all end in a moment. Natural disasters, crime, accidents. Life is filled with horrible catastrophes that can befall anyone without notice. Tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, and more. We live in a world where control is a myth. We think we can control outcomes, even medically, and have unrealistic expectations quite often about how things should go. Life should be fair.
Justice would say my life is unfair. I don’t deserve to sit in a comfy chair in a climate-controlled home with sweet doggies at my side, writing this. I am a sinner. I fail too often, even if only in my thoughts which are not always as kind and compassionate as I would like them to be. Without my faith in the salvation bought for me at the cross by Jesus Christ, and the work He has done in my heart and life through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, I would be toast. So, I savor the sacred because life is fragile and transient.
Really good people suffer horribly. Consider Job and his suffering. Even when life is hard, God has and always will be at work behind the scenes. So, savor the sacred.
I’m not saying that those going through those hard times shouldn’t be sharing. I’ve been encouraged and blessed by those who have shared God’s work in the midst of their struggles. There is a time and a place for that, maybe even to only a close few. Obviously, I’m not an influencer dancing and singing and coming up with some kind of schtick to get clicks or more thumbs up on my posts.
I have loftier goals. I want to live a life (and write books) that honor God and give Him the glory. I can’t do that without tuning into His Holy Spirit—again, savoring the sacred. That might mean I need to set down my phone more instead of getting lost in the vortex of all those posts, reels, videos, and images. I’m working hard at putting down my phone to be present in the moment when I’m with others.
How about you? How can you spend more time savoring the sacred?