My SacredSpace facetime has a sequence: a pause for “Presence” – to join with Him, an awareness of Him, to gently conjoin; then to “Freedom” – a reminder of choice, of free will, of life; and then “Consciousness” – laying down how I feel right now, pausing what I have running through my head, opening myself to Him. And now … being in the right frame of mind … we hit the verses together.

Anyway … today I am weary, with a to-do-list running around my thoughts. So I went through Presence to Freedom – and back to Presence and then to Freedom – and then back to Presence yet again … trying to shake off the to-do-list and tiredness … wanting to open up for Him … to connect …

And He did. Because on the third flick back to “Presence” … He cuffed me around the ear and told me to get on with it! That if I spent any more time trying to “get hold of Him” – I would never get my to-do-list done!

And when that happens all I can do is giggle – and giggle – and giggle some more – and once I start I cannot stop – I always keep giggling! Which is really quite liberating, very connecting and conjoining without any effort on my part!

So we hit the verses with me still giggling:

”Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.” Then he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. They will say to you, ‘Look there!’ or ‘Look here!’ Do not go, do not set off in pursuit. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must endure much suffering and be rejected by this generation.”” Luke 17:20-25

And it was as though He drew His hand back – and there were the tea-leaf interpreters, the crystal ball watchers, the academics poring through texts, the theologians trying so hard to determine the moment, the lost and lonely seeking a sign, all those weary moans of “take me Lord” … the noise of the market place … and then all unifying to just one word … over and again: “When? When? When?”

And then He drew His fingers over these verses, gently touching, slowly nodding … and I looked at the words He was looking at … the words His fingers caressed … and found myself nodding … understanding:

”For in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.”

Just like that cuff around my head: I try so hard to “get hold of Him” – never realising it is as easy as giggling! My trying so hard to “get hold of Him” is pointless – we already have hold of each other. Because when He lives within always – just where is the commonsense (and love) in my trying to “get hold of Him”?

And then as we shared the silence again together, me pondering, Him still looking fondly at these verses … was it my imagination or did I hear Him whisper:

“Just get on with it …”

And I wonder …

He is here. He always is. He always has been. He always will. Just what does our fascination with reading the “tea leaves of theology” gain us … ?

Other than pushing Him away ever further?

He is here.

Let’s “just get on with it”.
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SacredSpace: http://www.sacredspace.ie/