Friends,
Thanks for a great day yesterday! As those of you who were there saw, class time got me really revved up! I began tired, but very excited. The subject matter we discussed is one that is very close to my heart, how to have peace in the middle of conflict.
We looked closely at Psalm 46 (one of my favorites) and noticed the way that this psalm holds up both the reality of storms and also the presence of peace. The psalm uses imagery of crashing waves and also a river. One is an image of chaos and the other is an image of control and order. The beauty of Psalm 46 is it shows us that both can exist at the same time. We can have hope, peace, stability and order even in a world filled with chaos and storms. The river, the stream, has order and leads to (or perhaps points to) a place that cannot be shaken. There is a city that cannot be moved and our God is actually bringing that city to us right now. Maybe not fully, but in part. The church, we said, can hopefully be such a river; a place that lives out the purpose and order of God’s holy habitation.
We also talked about the three different categories psalms can be placed in. Psalms of orientation, disorientation and reorientation. These three categories represent a certain order to life. Life moves in cycles of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation. There is hope that these cycles have been occurring even from the time the psalms were put together. There is so much more to talk about here…hopefully soon we can do a series on the psalms exclusively.
For now feel free to respond to one or all of the prompts or simply make up your own post.
Share how you have seen the “river” in your own life. How have you found peace in chaos?
Share how the rhythm of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation have come through in your life. Is it helpful to know, in times of disorientation, that times of reorientation are on the way?
I do hope that all is well and look forward to hearing from you soon!
Peace,
Aaron
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ReplyDeleteI keep thinking about Orientation, Disorientation, and Reorientation as a parallel to the idea of living in the Past, Present, and Future.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like during times of Orientation there is a tendency to live in the Past... like those strange people who show up at High School reunions who are still living in the 90's (or whatever decade you graduated in). As if they're gripping onto that Orientation period of their life where all seemed to be well... the waters were still... but it's the Past, and it's not natural to avoid moving forward. There's no Present or Future if you live like that.
I think of Disorientation as the Present. It seems that realistically, there is Disorientation to participate in all around us. Letting yourself live in the Present means feeling the Disorientation around you that comes with being an adult, a parent, a professional, unemployed, a survivor, a victim, etc. The Disorientation of life can be somewhat evaded if a person isn't present... And people choose not to live in the Present all the time. I think, sometimes, I've avoided the Present and the Disorientation that accompanied it.
And then I think of Reorientation as Future. Reorientation is about hope... and hope is always about the future, the unknown. Reorientation, especially in the Psalms, isn't about the removal of the Disorientation of life. It's about hoping in the future when there will be times of peace. Coming to terms with the Disorientation of life is when Reorientation begins... not when bad things stop happening, but when we choose to coexist with the bad things... and this happens with hope in our future.
Just some thoughts... not all of it makes sense, but it's another way to think about the Psalter and the idea of Orientation, Disorientation, and Reorientation... and it makes sense to me! :)
Chelan