Ephesians 5 - Submission

When Allan and I were getting ready to get married, we talked a lot about the meaning of the traditional vows. We decided to say our vows without the pastor leading us (I admit I did have to use a cheat sheet - public speaking nerves were not any less then). We discussed our views on "headship", which we both admitted we didn't really understand, and we didn't really resolve any thoughts on that. And we worked through surname importance, with Allan suggesting he take on my surname, but in the end just each keeping our own (my family loss playing a large role in that decision for me). Over the years we've driven the gravelly road of what possibly could be the biblical definitions of "submission" and "headship" and how that is supposed to play out in our western culture and 2000s time. Which brings me to some thoughts on Ephesians chapters 5 and 6. Just some thoughts right now (September 2022) - don't hold me to these in years to come as God continues to make himself known better to me as well....

In my ESV Bible, Ephesians 5:1-20 is titled "Walk in Love". This title comes from the "introductory" sentences of that chapter, but the first word of that section is "therefore", and we all know when we see a "therefore", we need to find out what it's there for .... So, back it up to chapter 4, where Paul is talking about living in unity in the body of Christ - a unity of faith that gives us a deeper knowledge of the Son of God. And then he leads into how this new experience of being united with Christ causes us to live in a way that blesses others as Christ's united body, ending with "be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you". So now (chapter 5:1-20) we walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us - and the section ends with "submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ". 

Just like we had to read vs 1-20 in light of what came before, we now also need to read vs 22-6:9 in light of what came before it. Paul exhorts the Ephesians to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ, and then breaks it down, to show what that looks like. 

        Everyone: SUBMIT to one another out of reverence for Christ
            Wives: SUBMIT
            Husbands: SUBMIT (using an alternative word - LOVE)
            Children: SUBMIT (OBEY)
            Fathers/Parents: SUBMIT (DON'T PROVOKE)
            Slaves: SUBMIT (OBEY)
            Masters: SUBMIT (DO THE SAME TO THEM)

There's something really helpful about chapters, paragraphs and subheadings etc. in our Bibles, because our western eyes and brains have trouble with big chunks and run-on sentences etc. But let me tell you a secret someone told me before: Shhh - the chapters, paragraphs and subheadings are not part of the original Bible. Why does knowing that matter? Because if we understand that, we don't need to be bound by them. Sometimes chapters, paragraphs and subheadings make us forget that we need to look back and forth for context (thank goodness for "therefores" that remind us to check what they're there for...). Paul didn't write chapter 5: 22-33 especially for wives and husbands, as the subheading in the ESV suggests. He wasn't trying to say - wives and husbands, if there's nothing else in this letter you have time for, then at least read this.... He wrote a letter, to a church. He told the church to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. And then he gave examples of how people should live into that submission. He showed how everyone could submit to everyone. Wives to husbands, husbands to wives, children to parents, parents to children (what??), slaves to masters, and even masters to slaves (wait-what??). I actually think he started out with wives, because it was an easy one to swallow, and the men (and probably most women) listening would start gravely nodding their heads, yep...yep. Then, a little jolt of discomfort to the men (and a little twinkle of light for the women), as he starts to talk to the husbands... but OK, they'll work through that. Then back to submission by kids, yep...yep (kids slink down in their seats). Then a bigger jolt - parents, you need to submit to your kids too, you know (hang on, maybe submission is a bit more complicated than we thought it was - and note: the kids suddenly sit up a little higher and look a little more like they feel valued), and then ending off (after reminding slaves to submit to their masters) by saying even masters need to submit to their slaves.... (side note: do you see how the value of each part of the body is also played out here, as we think through the emotions of the people listening to these examples???)

So what is submission in the letter to the Ephesians about? Being imitators of God, as his beloved children. Walking in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. No filthiness, no darkness - walk as children of the light. Walk as wise people. Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. All of us, to each of us, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.

Is it going to be easy? No. And that's why we keep reading Paul's letter and he encourages us with the promise of God's strength in us. This is not just a fight between people submitting to each other or not, or people liking the idea of submission or not. This struggle is just the start. Take on God's strength to help with this struggle, because there are bigger fights you need to be readied for - cosmic stuff. Take up the whole armour of God, so that you will be able to stand firm when it gets to that. And know that the initial work you've put into this unity stuff (submission to each other and all that) is worth it, because we're going to need to stand united when the evil day comes....

"Righteous" Indignation

 Matthew 26 is a chapter that's full of indignation. Each indignant person in this chapter is convinced it's righteous indignation (except Peter right at the end - that's basically just practiced indignation). Only Jesus' indignation is actually righteous, and, wait, even though he could in all fairness be indignant in this chapter of Matthew, he actually isn't.

Matthew 26:8. The disciples are indignant at the woman's blatant waste. That money could have been spent on serving the poor. They were righteously indignant, as we should be when money is not spent wisely, stewardly, with thought to those whom Jesus' prioritizes. Clearly. But, hang on. Jesus says no. "She has done a beautiful thing". Look deeper - what is this all about? What is religion all about? "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself." (Matthew 22:37-39) The second love is like the first, because it depends on it. Loving your neighbour doesn't stand alone. "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19) How did God show his love to us? "God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him" (1 John 4:9). The woman was an example to Jesus' disciples and to us ("wherever this gospel is proclaimed") because she knew that in order to love others best, we need to love our Saviour first. So wait a sec before you get indignant. Where is Jesus in this story you are indignantly judging? Look for Jesus first, and then make sure to look for his way forward. 

Matthew 26:33-35. Peter is indignant because he knows for sure he will never fall away. He will never deny Jesus. Never. Not even by the end of the day. Jesus shakes his head lovingly and says, "Well, actually...." A little humility goes a long way, Peter. And Alice. "Though they all fall away... I will never". Others will, but not me. Hang on a second, is that chunk of bark in the way of my view of all those others who will likely fall away from Jesus? Let me work on getting that log out of my eye first. 

Now there's a little "no indignation" intermission. All of Jesus' disciples fall asleep during his most sorrowful hour. "Wake up, friends, you can sleep some more later. My time has come." Note: no indignation here from Jesus, even though it deserved all the indignation. Indignation would look something like: What the heck?? My toughest time and you couldn't even support me then?? That's not Jesus' reaction.

Matthew 26:51. One of those who was with Jesus gets physical in their indignation and cuts off an enemy ear with their sword. What a courageous and loyal, righteously indignant friend. They were there when Jesus needed them. Got them right on the ear too! But Jesus says - no. That's not my way. I don't need you for this. You have other tasks to do and roles to fulfill in my kingdom. Cutting people's ears off is not one of them. Jesus didn't need this indignation, because he has God almighty, all-powerful, magnificent on his side. Alice, go ahead and do the other things you are equipped to do and leave the protecting up to the perfect protector. "God is our refuge and strength ... Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth" Psalm 46:1&10. Be still does not include physical outbursts of indignation, but simply trusting that God's got the protection of his people and his Holy Name in hand.

Matthew 26:65. The high priest tears his robe and calls out "Blasphemy!" Righteous indignation against the blaspheming of his God's Holy Name. Standing up for God at the final hour. At that final hour where this call of indignation seals the deal for Jesus' death.... Huh, what happened here? In their "righteous" indignation they turned out to mistakenly be on the wrong side. In my "righteous" indignation I could possibly be too.... Am I sure that God is on side with my indignant call for justice/right/judgment?

Now I am sitting outside the courtyard. Someone comes up to me and says, "You also were with that man that no-one likes, who is being ridiculed and whipped (insinuation: you should probably be ridiculed and whipped too)". I'm really well-versed in indignation, and as above sometimes even get indignant for the wrong reasons and when I'm just kind of scared (e.g. of being ridiculed or whipped). And so I (indignantly) deny it before them all, saying, "I don't know what you mean." And when I go out to the entrance, another person sees me and says to the bystanders, "This woman is one of them - a Jesus follower". And again I deny it with an oath (getting more indignant): "I do not know the man." After a little while the bystanders come up and say to me, "You definitely are one of them, you sound like them." Then I begin to invoke a curse on myself and to swear (full-on indignant over here) "I do not know the man." (I'm really scared and just want to be left alone in my small corner). And immediately the rooster crows. I remember the saying of Jesus, "You too will deny me." 

And I go out and weep bitterly.

Bitter weeping is the only place my "righteous" indignation gets me.

Thank goodness Jesus still looks on me with love (Luke 22:61)

Questions

 

God’s original plan:

Genesis 2:

22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.

23 “At last!” the man exclaimed.

“This one is bone from my bone,

and flesh from my flesh!

She will be called ‘woman,’

because she was taken from ‘man.’ ”

24 This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.

 After the fall into sin:

Genesis 3:16

To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

Dane Ortland in Gentle and Lowly, p. 31 quotes Jurgen Moltmann, summarizing his thoughts: “We are so used to a fallen world that sickness, disease, pain and death seem natural”. This is the same with views of men and women, and also roles in marriage. “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you” is a curse, not an explanation of how God wants things to be in his kingdom between husband and wife. God’s original plan was that man and woman would both be different (woman created differently from man), yet the same (“bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh”). This reality was not put there for any authority, control, submission or rule. This reality explains “why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united as one”. 

Do you know how we could live into this kingdom plan, in a counter-cultural way? Godly men could give up their last names (“leave his father and mother”) and take up their godly wife’s last name as they are united into one. What would the world look like if Christians did this?? How would “headship” look if men loved their wives in this way? 

Ephesians 5:

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing^[b] her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁸ In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— ³⁰ for we are members of his body. ³¹ “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”^[c] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³ However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Being a Woman

It just struck me today while doing my devotions, that there's something odd about what it means to be a woman. 


Obviously, every woman has their own thoughts on that.  But there are also obviously some prevailing thoughts.  I wouldn't dare say that I know them all, or know what the most prevailing thoughts are.  But as I read the devotion for the day from a Devotional for Women (that I got from my mom last spring and am only on page 5 of ....) that the prevailing implicit message that this book seems to give is that the average Christian mother is a stay at home mom.  I won't say which of the 1000s of devotionals it is, but it was created in Ohio, and other books I've read in the last while that come from the States, that weigh in in some way on the topic of womanhood, and that are written by fundamentalist Christian women, sort of give that impression as well.  Not that they necessarily say that's the norm, or ideal, but they give that general impression, implicitly.  The Christian woman's area of priority is the home.  I don't know if that's an "American" thing, but most of the books I get here are written by Americans, so that's what I have to read.


Now, I'm not going to make judgement calls either way.  That's really not where my thoughts were tending.  It was more towards the - "What does that do to us deep inside? How do those implicit messages affect me, my friends, other Christian women in our subconscious?".  And then also - "Is this Biblical? If this message is affecting our hearts and subconscious, is this something we want, and should the feelings that this causes in many women be validated?"


I have friends who are stay at home moms.  I have friends who work full time out of the home.  I have been a stay at home mom and a fulltime working mom.  And the various ranges of what can come in between that.  And I have struggled with implicit and explicit messaging relating to woman's role, but within myself and in discussions with others.  I don't claim to have any answers. And I don't think I ever will be done with that.


But.  When the prevailing message from respected people seems to be "the ideal Christian woman stays at home to care for her family" that creates war, in hearts and mouths.  People agree, disagree.  And the subconscious questions - "Am I not a real woman if I don't match up?"  And subconciouses cause some women to post articles they've read on either end of the topic, and cause others to speak defensively on their "side" or not speak at all, because they worry about the reaction of the person they're speaking to, or because if they say the words out loud they'll be committing to more than they want.  As if they want to take a side when they don't.  When I find myself in a discussion like this I pepper my words with a hundred caveats: "for myself", "for my family", "in my situation", "everyone's situation is different" .... 


Of course every article written comes from some subjective background.  And I have the feeling that the subjective background in the fundamentalist Christian American female writer is that they foremostly consider themselves "stay at home mothers".  So that affects their writing style, and the implicit messages they're going to send, even though they may not have a "side" themselves.


So when those implicit messages feel overwhelming, and I start to consider whether I'm must not be a real woman, because my thoughts and concerns tend much less to home-bound issues and much more to work, community, international, cultural, other issues (I was going to add spiritual, but that would be completely wrong for me, because I very strongly feel they are all spiritual issues), I need some Bible to get back to.  And right now two stick in my mind most deeply.  Proverbs 31 and John 17. 


Proverbs 31 - A wife of noble character who can find?  This chapter has probably been overused on both ends of the spectrum.  And many women cringe at any mention of this woman, because they feel they could never match up.  But I love this one, because of the huge variation of woman that is allowed.  Home-focused, community-focused, business-focused.  And of course we can never do it all - she doesn't either - she's got a passel of servant girls she provides portions for.  They work hard for her, and I don't think any of us have servant-girls.  So we just provide a fair rate to those we require to work for us to make things run the way we need them too - a part time babysitter, a fulltime daycare provider, a cleaning lady, a factory where clothes and shoes get made, food cooking and packaging plants to make meal prep easier, schools to educate our children ....  Or we do the ones we have prioritized for ourselves, and don't worry so much about stimulating the economy - home cooking, home schooling, home making ....  All those things need to be done, and the Proverbs 31 woman didn't do it all herself either - she chose which ones she could do best herself and then made arrangements for the rest to be done by others in a fair manner.


John 17 - I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.  That's Jesus speaking to his dad, so I'm sure my exegesis will have holes.  I don't even know what "exegesis" means.  But all of John 17 is about Jesus wanting us to have with God what he has with him, so that we will have the same love in us that Jesus has from God.  So I don't think it's a stretch to say that verse 4 applies directly to me as well.  We bring glory on earth to God by completing the work God gives us to do.  Personally.  Not the work God's given someone else to do.  Who has God made me?  Forget implicit messages from others.  God has made me someone who doesn't get a huge thrill out of talking about cleaning and diapering and cooking.  Not that I never do, or never did.  And I don't regret having been the stay at home mom.  I just didn't spend that much of it at home while I was, and my kids trucked along with me to volunteer positions and social activities.  And even now that they're all in school (already for years and years) and I continually consider what it is that God is giving me to do, the kids and the husband and the home are a huge part of the picture but definitely not exclusively.  God has made me the person he wants me to be, and in that gives me the tasks he wants me to do to glorify him.  And that's what's supposed to be my goal in life.


So the implicit messages will always be there.  But I will do my best to stand for what my Bible tells me, and not worry so much about those implicit messages, because they speak more about what God is telling the specific author is the way she should glorify him, and not so much how I should.


The explicit message is a whole other story.  I can definitely learn a lot there from the thousands of fundamentalist Christian authors. And I can agree or disagree as I compare them to what the Bible says.  And just keep learning and learning and learning, with a humble open mind.

Snowshoeing country fields

Today is a Wednesday.  That means I get the day to myself.  I try to make a habit of using it to spend some extra time with God, as well as get some much needed exercise.  Today after my regular devotions, I invited God to come with me on a snowshoeing hike.  He obviously didn't need snowshoes :-).
The sun was shining and the temperature a balmy 4 degrees.  Warm enough to go coatless (for a Canadian who has just gone through a -20 winter), cold enough for the snow to stay.  I tramped along the creek, around the field to the fencerow, and along the drifts of snow that the wind had whipped up.  It was quiet, and lovely.  Believe me - "lovely" is not a word I often use about winter.
I stopped on top of a big snow drift, and took the time to be still and look around.  I was surrounded by fields which were mostly covered with snow, but I could see farmhouses and barns as well as some ploughed earth where the snow was not as deep.  It made me think of the job that God gave to people - to be masters over the earth.  I don't really know what that all entails.  I do know that there are a lot of very valid arguments that we've been making a mess of this job.  But I also know that God created the world for us to be busy with.  He made something beautiful, and then he made people on it to allow them to create more beauty.  No, we don't always do a good job of that, and we often make a mess, but we also often make beauty.  Of course it wouldn't be beautiful if we farmed every square inch of the land and didn't leave space for the animals to flourish, and caused the land to start eroding.  But it is beautiful when we farm some of it, even quite a lot of it.  That's part of our job as gardeners.  We work with God to create beauty.
Of course, being me, my thoughts didn't just restfully stay there.  Part of the reason why I so desperately need my forced moments of quiet on Wednesdays is because my brain often works overtime.  As I thought of the beauty of God's world and our task in it, it struck me that being a parent is a lot like being a farmer or gardener.  We have huge influence on the product that comes from the field or the child.  If I plant a seed of corn, that's what will come up.  If I plant carrots, that's what will come up.  Not a lot of surprises there (well, unless you mix up your baby sprouts and plant watermelons to climb up your mail box and morning glories in careful mounds in your garden ....  Oops :-)).  We have to be careful what we plant, how we plant them, how we tend them - it's a huge responsibility!  But we can't control it all.  A farmer can't determine the weather conditions that her crops will grow in.  It's up to God to make sure it rains, and shines, in turn.  We can use lots of preventative measures to keep the bunnies, birds, and bad bugs out of our gardens, but they always seem to find their way back in.  It's up to God to protect and strengthen the growing plants.  And you know what - God sets times of fallow too.  Times when he doesn't want things to grow.  He created seasons for a reason, you know!  I don't know much about farming, but God does have really good reasons for creating a growing season in Canada as well as a season where nothing can grow.  That's OK.  Beautiful even.  And guess what - he often even sends down a beautiful and comforting blanket for the gardens and the fields during this time.
As my husband and I raise our children, it's so important for us to remember that we're raising them with God.  Yes, he's made us "masters" of our family, but he doesn't just throw the job at us and then sits back to wait and see what we make of it.  He's there with us every step of the way, pouring down rain and sunshine as it's needed.  But also allowing drought once in a while, or allowing pests to get in to the garden.  Strengthening the children - providing learning opportunities and teaching us how to guide them in making the most of these lessons.  And he also can leave extended times of fallow every now and then.  Ones that can sometimes drag on and on like a Canadian winter.  When one of our children is going through a hard time he is allowing that, and he's saying "You may not know why or how, but this is for your benefit!  Just trust me."  And he lays down his blanket on that child and says to us "Leave him with me - he's safe with me!  Enjoy this time too for what it's worth.  No - you may not see the fruits of your work right now, but there's other beauty in this time as well, like a snowshoe hike along the snowdrifts."

Contemplative Prayer

From "Common Prayer - A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals", this wisdom about contemplative prayer:
"Over and over Scripture invites us to abide in God.  To rest in God.  To dwell in God.  More than fifty times, Paul repeats the phrase "in Christ".  Contemplative prayer is not just about activity and speaking, but also about listening and resting in God.  Many of us have grown up thinking of prayer as a checklist of requests to God, like giving a grocery list to someone headed to the supermarket.  As one kid said, "I'm off to pray - does anyone need anything?" Prayer is certainly about sharing our concerns and frustrations with God.  God is personal enough to come down and wrestle in the dirt with Jacob or answer Abraham's pleading on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Still, contemplative prayer goes deeper ....  Prayer is less about trying to get God to do something we want God to do and more about getting ourselves to do what God wants us to do and to become who God wants us to become. There are times when we speak, weep, groan and shout at God.  But there are also times when we simply sit in silence and are held by our Beloved .... The monks have been known to say, "If your speaking doesn't add something beautiful to the silence, don't speak."  For many of us in the high-paced, cluttered world of materialism and noise, silence is a way we can free up the space to listen to God."
Silence.  Doesn't happen often.  And when it does, I think "what do I do now?"  Or I let my mind wander.  And even when it's "devotion" time for me, there's so often still noise in my head - things I need to do afterwards, things I want to request from God, things I'm struggling with.  But I do know that the times I have actually really felt a true sense of devotion were the times that I sat quietly, and one by one pushed each thought away, just like apparently Teresa of Avila did when she prayed, not fighting the thoughts, but letting them recede like waves.  Here comes another thought - don't dwell on it, but gently move it to the side - "not now".  A gentle, but persistent meditative action, focusing on nothing, not because in the nothing I will find myself, but because in the nothing I will find my God.
Meditation.  Many Christians are frightened of that word.  But I really think that when we give in to being frightened of meditation, Satan laughs and chalks another one up to himself.  It's like we've given meditation over to him.  Which is just what he wants.  If we don't dare to slow ourselves down in meditation, we are less likely to find that place where we are able to rest in God.  Meditation doesn't belong to New Age, or to Buddha, or whatever!  It belongs to the beginning of time, and the creator of all.  When I take time to quiet myself, to meditate, I am humbling myself and bring glory to God.  I am gently pushing aside all those things that that I think are so important, and letting God be first, just for a few moments.  And maybe then the practice will train me to put him first for all my moments ....
Psalm 131: "My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.  But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.  O Alice, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore."

Praying over my neighbourhood

We live in the country.  A beautiful old farmhouse, an acre of property.  Room for a dog, two cats, four chickens, and a pot bellied pig.  We've been living here for about 7 1/2 years, the house is still not "done", but the living is good.
Today I am sitting on our front porch.  A little thing with a rocking chair, under a juliette balcony.  The road is fairly busy with traffic, there's construction happening across the field.  Not much else.  We don't see many people around here, though there are neighbours.  There are about four houses to our right, across the field.  Across the road to our right another four or so.  To the left, an intersection with a gas station and a "hamlet" worth of houses.  Across the field at the back, some more houses, with a new one being built.  Over the road and straight across, a bunch of million dollar homes being built.
Our church is situated in Hamilton right downtown.  As a church, we have a strong mission focus, with a lot of thought to community interaction, and our family agrees with the importance of this focus. Often that makes our family think about moving back to Hamilton.  Moving to a "real" neighbourhood, allowing for more interaction.  We have friends who are involved in Move In, and that is very intriguing and in many ways appealing to us.  We do love people, and interaction, and community.
But here we are.  In our farmhouse, in the country.  What does God want from us here?  Of course, we could move.  And we'll do it, if it seems like that is what God wants.  But right now he doesn't seem to making that clear to us.  So what do we do here?
I sit on our porch and know one thing I can do.  One powerful and beautiful thing.  I can pray.  I can pray for Patricia, who owns the land around us.  Whose husband died a year ago and who is left alone to work out his dreams of developing the land, one field at a time.  I can pray for the families who have bought properties from her, who are building their "dream" homes, and then seeing their dreams shatter in marriage issues (yes, we hear about this, as the houses which have just been built go up for sale), and realization that money can't buy happiness.  I can pray for our soon-to-be-neighbour Ivana who is building her home across the back field, who is older and single and so eager to move in, she says, so that our children can garden with her and bring her eggs and cookies.  I can pray for the people down the road who have just begun a walking routine, possibly to deal with health issues that have set in at their later stage of life.  I can pray for Kevin and his family, as they settle in to life in the country a few houses down from us after having moved from east Hamilton, and as his two children go through college and university.  I can pray for neighbours who we never seem to see, but who are there and living before the face of God as we all are - that they may know they are living before him, and may reckon with that.
Just this morning I helped friends move from one house to another, on the same street in downtown Hamilton.  Their neighbours watched, we smiled and greeted each other. I could live there.  I could meet people, interact with them, be part of their lives.  But I am here, and God has a big task for me here too.  Yes, less interaction, but maybe more emphasis on God's all-powerful, all-knowing hand.  All I can do here is pray.  I can't do much to get my hands involved.  Or stick my nose in my neighbours' business.  Maybe that's God's idea of teaching me something.  Reminding me that he is the powerful one, and I need to rely on his power more, and my own less.