The Interstices of Life
You’ve just finished something and it’s time to get up and move on. But you are tempted to linger. You wonder if the weather forecast has changed; you wonder about the latest news; you think of someone whom you want to contact. Sorather than standing and moving on, you open your phone.
Here’s where it always goes bad for me. Instantly I see something and think of something else. I’ll open an email, or read a short post, and in a veritable split second I have forgotten why I picked up my phone in the first place. And sometimes it’s worse; I will open the phone with no reason for doing so. I finish something and completely without conscious thought pick up the thing and look at it.
Such times are the interstices of our life. They can add up to a lot of time. And the question is, Who is in charge?
One small satisfaction comes when you decide to take a five-minute break and immediately get up and walk somewhere. It’s a chance to shake out your arms and stretch and remind yourself that you have a body. It’s a chance, perhaps, to make a quick phone call (using your phone as a phone!) and remind yourself that you have friends. Most of all, it’s a chance for a quick prayer to God.
What might you pray about, in the interstices of life? Anything you want! Pray for your friend, for yourself, for your country, for the sunlight: since it is appropriate to pray for anything that is on your mind, anything that is on your mind is good content for prayer.
And when five minutes are done, it’s time to get back to move on to the next thing.
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That’s what we can do with the in-between moments, the interstices of our life. Such in-between times are even more important for God. Although God is with us in every minute of every hour, he is especially available to us when we are in-between one thing and another. When our attention is moving from a job at the desk to making preparations for a meal, he is particularly close.
I think he lingers in places like that. When you make the turn in the hall, his is the whisper in your ear. When you stand to open a window blind, he is already beside you looking out and on the other side looking in. Even when you reach for the phone to see the latest news, he is already at hand. After one thing has ended and before the next begins, he is right there.
Here’s a suggestion I have found provocative. Whenever you pick up your “device” (for any reason at all), pause and remember God’s presence. Ask God, What do you have for now?
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Out & About: This Sunday, November 16, I am to preach at St. Nicholas Church in Flower Mound, Tex.; the service is at 10 a.m.
The talks on Augustine’s Confessions continue: at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, on Sunday, November 23, on Books V and VI, in the Great Hall at 10:20 a.m.
Sunday, November 30, I am to preach at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Dallas, at 9 and 11:15 a.m.