TIP-TOP SHAPE?
Though they didn't really get it, Peter, James, and John were privy to a vision of the risen Jesus on a mountaintop somewhere at the midway point of Jesus' earthly ministry. And we too are lifted at times to heights where God addresses us and opens us to future greatness, brilliance even. And there and then might we kneel and offer gratitude before we rise and move on to claim that different future.
Rev. Ted Loder wrote a meditation on that kind of experience, called it "The Kettle of the Day":
"O God, never quite grasped, yet always at the tip of my tongue, my mind, my heart,
while it's still dark I hear the dawn - winged chatter, feathered singing, black, grumpy caws,
clatter of the early train - and yawning up, I put on the kettle of the day.
Pink and blue spreads, heaven to earth, ineffable, inseparable, mysterious as male/female,
timeless probe into my quick time, transcendence in disguise, disturbing, welcome reminder
of what I never quite remember or ever quite forget, this wonder at the tip of me.
I stammer my praise, my 'O-God-I'm-glad',
for those I love and who love me, though who knows why, except mercy and grace,
and the willingness to do love's long labours towards love's deep
rewards; ...
for mistakes corrected, weaknesses owned, changes made, failures become teachers;
for the traces of wisdom the years have left in me;
for old friends, good stories, nothing to do, sitting still,
listening, watching, thinking, praying, sleeping;
for work to go back to, for the sweat for bread;
for peace, for justice, which is love with its sleeves rolled up;
for this stubbornly fertile, painfully abused, incredibly beautiful, beloved mother earth;
for this fumbling, frangible human world, still bathed in light, cradled in heaven;
and this for Christ's sake longing at the tip of me, and at my core,
for what only you could make me long for.
I remember but this meagre much and offer you my thankful prayer."
Wrestling the Light 1991
May God take our meagre much that dangles at the tip of our own selves and shape it into ministry and mission.