Monday, January 4, 2010

ROBERT : Evidently, I still am in Advent. . . .

Evidently, I still am in Advent.

At my house, I am known as the one who needs some time to process things before I know what I think about something.
If we are having an issue at my house, as the Oprah puts it, the modus operandi is this : You state your case, give Robert an hour or two, or a day or two, or a week or two to think it over — the time varies according to the intensity or depth or importance of the matter. He will get back to you as soon as he knows what he thinks. Even if the issue has been, shall we say, energetically discussed several times before, he will need some time to consider his position in this new case.
If you try and get him to go faster, you will only get frustrated. He came equipped with the bare minimum two forward gears — S is for Stroll, Z is for Zen. The R on the gearbox, not surprisingly, stands for Reflective.
Which is a major part of the reason I find myself frozen here this frozen morning in early January. Apt weather, I suppose.
It is the day before Twelfth Night, the night that will make this season a Christmas Past for all time, and usher in the coming season of the annual Epiphany of our Lord, if we can, in fact, learn to see Him in his various and sundry guises any better than we did last year.
I am still stuck, as one might expect, in the early Advent readings from Isaiah — Behold, I am about to do something new, can you not yet perceive it?
I am stuck here partly because I am always slow to know what I perceive, no matter how new or old the thing in front of me happens to be. Five or six weeks of consideration does not seem untoward in the face of such a question, if you ask me.
The other reason I am frozen here is that I am still trying to come to grips with the new things The One Who made us had in store for me last year about this time, the things I could not perceive then and still do not completely understand. I believe the One Who made us can be trusted but, as my best friend says, you are wise not to turn your back.
You guys go on ahead. I will try to catch up by Ash Wednesday. I love a celebration.

7 comments:

GailNHB said...

Once again, Robert, your honesty moves me to deep pondering. You say it so well: "He is trustworthy, but you need to watch your back." I am coming to believe that the more I know, the less I understand. I find myself saying: "Really, Lord? Really???" an awful lot.

So take your time. Ponder. Read and reread. No need to catch up if you aren't ready. We will see you when we see you.

Traveling mercies.

robert benson and ben stroup said...

Thanks for reading and writing. I will be glad to be seen, whenever and wherever that turns out to be.

Namaste—

R. Benson

Robyn Rochelle E. said...

hello- i'm a missionary in Germany (southwest corner in Schwarzwald - to be more specific) headed home in a few weeks for HMA. I wanted to say thank you for responding to my friends blogspot. You thanked her for reading your book. I have neither read your book nor heard about it until now. But I look forward to buying it when I get home and diving into ENGLISH for a while. I've read this blogspot and want to say thank you! Thank you for desiring to remind believers that we need each other. May God be with you.

robert benson and ben stroup said...

Thank you for reading and for taking the time to write to us. Be in touch.

Namaste —

R. Benson

Joanne : The Simple Wife said...

Dear Robert,

God is amazing! And speaking through you to me this morning. Wrote about it here: http://thesimplewife.typepad.com/the_simple_wife/2010/01/remember-last-week.html

So good to catch up with you!

Joanne

Joanne : The Simple Wife said...

P.S. Just saw John Blase in your blog list, which makes me smile. I met his wife, Mer, through blogging and a host of "small world coincidences." And count her as a dear, dear friend.

J.

robert benson and ben stroup said...

JOANNE —

So you are friends with the woman who is responsible for the grin that never seems to leave John's face, save when he has foolishly turned his attention to smaller things — like sentences and paragraphs and audiences and such. Good for you. Tell her I say hello to her, and thank you as well — we are very glad that someone took John in.

And thank you, as always, for reading us and for being kind enough to write to us and to share us with your friends. ( Hello Toben. )

Namaste —

R. Benson