Storm Eunice rages outside right now. The trees sway madly. Pigeons cluster for shelter on the limbs of the horse chestnut sheltered by the neighbour’s towering, dancing conifer. Down the lane a tree lies prostrate, roots skyward. The recycling bins hide wisely in the garage.
On an ancient mountain top, a man hears the wind scream around the rocky summit. Drained and depressed from life’s triumphs and tragedies, he stumbles from his cave to stand and take the full force. He feels nothing, just more numbness. As he did in the violent earthquake which came before, and would do in the subsequent fire. He retreats back into his cave, lies down once again, rolls over to face the wall, and wants everything to end. It was to be only be a still, small voice of calm that would penetrate his armour.
Earth, Wind and Fire – remember them from the late ‘70s and beyond? ‘Boogie wonderland’, ‘After the love has gone’, and other dance hits. The band name echoes the story of the man Elijah. A man who found a new tune to dance to.
So a poem – ‘The Whisper’ by Chris Matthews (from @pres_ence)
Even the magnificence of the storm roar
Failed to awaken him.
Entangled by a shroud of misery,
Exhausted, angry and so desperately alone
He was unimpressed by the raging wind and driving rain.
Predictable, he thought.
The violence of the earthquake momentarily distracted him;
But too lost in his own despair
He remained unmoved and bound.
The flames, as spectacular as they were,
Failed to stir him,
He was no longer a prophet who dealt in fire.
The knots seemed to tighten.
Despairing,
Numb,
He barely heard the whisper.
Unexpected,
Gentle,
Tender,
The voice named him.
And he was undone.
Undone, so he could be remade. A man beyond empty, who found the fuel he needed not in the obvious big pumps on the forecourt, but in an assuming little corner.
Lent can be like this. Like Christ in the wilderness, with seemingly nothing, he too was undone and remade. In the midst of life’s storms, triumphs and tragedies, let us be undone by the gentle whisper, that we may be remade again.
