As you may have noticed, I don't usually post anything terribly personal here on my blog. You get some observations and adventures, while I save the rest for conversations with close friends or perhaps when someone is interested and asks (even though the blog is pretty much read only by friends with whom I'd have no problem sharing more personal details).
I'm not planning to change that, but in this case, I will post this beautiful youtube video of one of my favorite hymns and let it do the talking for me. I love the lyrics, the harmonies, the variety of tempo and tone, the subtly-developing crescendo, and especially the sincere emotion so evident in the performers' faces! I'll post the lyrics below.
After a cave tour earlier this week - which included some geology, some history, and some associated observations about the power of perspective and how to make life beautiful - one of my visitors commented, "Eres muy espiritual, no?" (You're very spiritual, aren't you?).
What do you say to that? I replied, "Algo" (somewhat) and "Me gusta" (I like that stuff). And I do, I really value it, it's one of the most important and rewarding things in the universe; but it's personal, so I don't have a lot to say about it unless, for some reason, it comes up in conversation, when I'm sure I'd find the topic fascinating to explore and we could discuss it and all its implications for hours.
I seem to remember being more open in the past. If I was writing this blog ten years ago, I bet I'd include a lot more personal details. And now that I ask myself why I've changed, I think it has a lot to do with a recent post about how I've grown used to people just not being very interested in anything beyond the little boxes they live in, their sets of standardized thoughts and interests. So unless I'm convinced they really want to hear something new, why bother to say anything?
Of course there are other factors as well, which I would mention if they weren't personal and I didn't already promise not to crack open and spill that junk out all over the internet.
So if you really want to know, feel free to ask next time you see me.
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount, I’�m fixed upon it
Mount of Thy redeeming love
Here I raise my ebenezer
Hither by Thy help I’�ve come
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here�’s my heart, oh, take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here’�s my heart, oh, take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’�m constrained to be
Let thy goodness, like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here’�s my heart, oh, take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above!
Well Shaun, I think there is a lot of value to keeping personal things personal. Obviously I don’t live by it 🙂 That is an undoubtedly beautiful song.
In the words of Arthur Henry King, “A man reveals himself completely by the way he speaks and writes. Whether or not he tries to hide himself, he still reveals himself… I am always prepared to demonstrate, that granted they have similar technical achievement, a good man will write better than a bad man.”
D.H. Lawrence said something interesting, and that is, “Don’t trust the writer, trust the work.” In other words, don’t trust what the writer says about himself, but go to the work and see what he is doing.
Another quote from Ben Jonson’s Timber or Discovery, “As a man speaks, so is he. Speak that I may see thee.” We speak in a myriad of ways.
If I had the choice between a personal essay or narrative from a friend, and a collection of their favorite poetry, short stories, or musical selections, I’d choose the collection any day. This multi-leveled language is valuable and holds a higher potentiality of edification and insight into a human soul than reality-based divulging.
Just like with your visitor, you revealed who you truly are with sincerity. Sincerity, as it has been said, is being oneself without thinking of oneself, and this man sensed that. No posturing. No need to shock, or impress, or receive a particular sort of feedback. That is true spirituality. And what better communication is that?