“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
These words, from the poet Mary Oliver end her beautiful and thought provoking poem ‘The Summer Day’with a striking question. It’s a wonderful, eye-opening, mind expanding question. One of those questions that bears some thinking about. It’s an invitation: “Tell me.”
These two words sometimes challenge, “Tell me what you mean by that” or “Tell me what you think you’re doing.” But they have potential to be warm, grace-full words.
When my children come home from school I ask ‘Tell me what you did today’. It’s an invitation - I want to know. In it I want to communicate my longing to hear them, and my intention is to listen. In my own Church fellowship I said some weeks back that I love to hear people’s stories and since then many people have taken the opportunity to share something of their lives. It’s a huge privilege, and a hugely rewarding activity for me, and I hope it is for those who choose to share as well. It has allowed me to enter new worlds, hear about some wonderful experiences and about challenges people have faced. All from a simple invitation, “Tell me.”
I think that God is a ‘tell me’ God.
We often confuse prayer with the words that are said in Services. We often think that the way to talk to God is with special kinds of words, preferably with ‘Thee’ and ‘Thou’ liberally repeated. But prayer is much more than words – it can be silent, sung, musical, quiet or noisy. Prayers can be made, spun, thought, laughed, danced, and painted. Praying can be together or alone, formal, silly, joyful or sad. The invitation to share in prayer is not a demand but a longing on God’s part to be woven into the fabric of our daily life. “Tell me,” says God, “share with me. Be with me. In whatever way you are comfortable, in whatever nourishes your soul. Tell me.”
Yes, there’s challenge –truly opening to God in prayer is a risky business that will result in transformation and growth, possibly even via pain and loss as well as in joyful abandon. But God has shared God’s story with all humanity in the person of Jesus Christ and longs for us to share our story in return.
And just as Christ opened his arms to all people and welcomed all to share their own story with him, people of faith are called to be ‘tell me’ people also. It is a privilege to ask people to tell their story, and a responsibility to hear it without judging or criticising but loving and understanding. It is risky but rewarding to allow people to tell their fears and darknesses and to hear and respond with love even as we are open about our own fears and dark sides too. It is an honour to allow people to tell us what they need without feeling the need to tell them first what we think they need!
As people of faith we have the opportunity to be expansive, grace-full, loving, inviting to life.
Tell me.
Alastair McCollum recently moved with his family from Devon, England to become Rector of St John the Divine Anglican Church in Victoria. He has a passion for the Gospel, motorbikes and bike culture, worship, philosophy, theology, guitars, single malt whisky, real ale, cinema and all things French.
Church website: www.stjohnthedivine.bc.ca
blog: fracme.blogspot.ca
You can read more articles from our interfaith blog, Spiritually Speaking HERE
