Sunday, February 8, 2009

Words

This afternoon I finished a book by Eugene Peterson. He is the guy who wrote "The Message" translation of the Bible and he is profound. Sometimes when I read I have my journal sitting next to me so that I can jot down a quote the gripped me and reflect on it later. Here's what I wrote today:
"We use words for communion and words for communication.
Words for communion tell stories, make love, nurture intimacies, develop trust
Words for communication buy stocks, sell cauliflower, direct traffic and teach algebra
Both are necessary, but the gift of words is for communion: a part of myself enters a part of yourself."

A few weeks ago Chris and I were caught up in words of communication.
Three days a week, we have this small window of time we see each other. He leaves for work at 4:45am and gets home around 2:15. I leave for my part time job at 2:45, so we have a half hour to eat lunch together before I go. On this particular day, we realized when the lunch was over that we just passed on a bunch of information to each other, rather than doing life together. We felt ripped off. There was no communion in our lunch- it felt like a business meeting and we hated it.

So, we decided that from now on, lunch was reserved for what we call"doing life together" or as Peterson puts it "communion". This time is sacred for sharing cute stories about Liliana or a funny thing that happened at work, or a nugget God shared in morning prayer time. Then, as soon as I get in the car, I call Chris on my cell phone and while I drive to work, we communicate. We go over necessary details that have to be exchanged. It's a great set up.

1 comment:

..Jenny said...

Steve & I try do something similar where we talk business on the phone while I'm heading home from work every night.
My problem is that I'm such a communication and detail freak that I just can't relax and enjoy my husbands company until we've gotten all the business stuff taken care of.