Thursday, August 2, 2012

THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE

2 Samuel 11:26 – 12:13

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord, and the Lord sent Nathan to David…Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!

It’s interesting how stories and parables give us a stronger understanding of our realities than the realities themselves. The best writers highlight our own realities through the stories of their characters. James Baldwin does this for me. Through his characters, I recognize myself and it either affirms my decisions and actions or calls my behavior into question. I remember when I dealing with grief, I was reading James Baldwin’s Go Tell it on the Mountain. Gabriel, one of the main characters was coming to Christ. As he walked and reflected on his past sins, he began to weep. Baldwin writes, “’I wept,' he said later, ‘like a little child.’ But no child had ever wept such tears as he wept that morning on his face before Heaven under the mighty tree. They came from deeps no child discovers, and shook him with an auge no child endures.’”

Whenever I cried, I felt like a child. But my tears were not a child’s tears. It was this passage that revealed to me what tears mean and initiated my own healing process. Similarly, Nathan uses a story so David can begin his healing process. Initially, David is unable to see the pain he has caused.  To David, the rich man in Nathan’s parable has clearly hurt the poor man with no right to do so. And with that parable, David’s eyes are opened to his own sin.

Invitation:   As you meditate quietly, ask God for a keen awareness of yourself.  As you open your mind, spirit and body to this awareness yield yourself to where it takes you.  Ask God to speak to you through your sense of elevated consciousness.  Are there any surprises?  Place those surprises at the foot of the cross.

Prayer:  God sometimes you send us stories and people to enlighten us of our own realities. Thank you for these messengers because when we are clouded with our own sin, we cannot see. Continue to manifest yourself with messengers and signs so the truth will never leave us. Amen.

Emma Akpan