Focusing and Framing take Three

Beholding happens when you stop trying to ‘hold’ and allow yourself to ‘be held’ by another.  You are enchanted by something outside yourself, beyond yourself.  Behelding is perhaps more accurate. --Richard Rohr

What do you see in this photo???

An ordinary lighthouse.

A white structure reaching toward the sky.

A beacon to lost ships trying to navigate the world.

A tiny window near the top reminding you of how much you loved the story of Rapunzel as a child.

The need for symmetrical structure to support, which is true both for buildings and for our lives.

The brilliant blue sky with clouds dancing around.

Let's go deeper than our initial list.  What else do you see???

The symmetry of the structure reminds me of how I long for order to my life.

The white cross that is formed on the far side of the structure near the bottom of the photo begins to emerge the longer I look at the photo.

The way different shapes (circles, triangles, rectangles, straight lines) all meet playfully and beautifully blend together show me the blessings of the world around us.

When we start to ponder prayerfully the world, when we gaze rather than glance, we start with the simple, straight-forward question, what do you see?  We begin with our first reactions, but we stick and stay with the list trying to add more and more.  We dig deeper, looking around for smaller details that are part of the photo too.  Part of the beauty of the prayer practice we will engage this Advent is that a photo really is worth more than a thousand words, but when do we stop to rest and reflect on what we are seeing and sensing in the constantly moving scenes of our lives?

And once we have completed the lists of the immediate and more intimate details, we can then ask the deep diving question, why do I see what I see?  The why question helps engage our imagination.  Maybe, instead of a lighthouse, we start to see in this photo a story about a child who lived in this structure and secretly knew that the lighthouse was a rocket.  The child was torn between being a beacon to the lost ships sailing in the bay and going to explore the other frontier of space.  The child lived knowing that the work of shining a light in the storminess of life was important, yet she felt the tension of staying stationary on the ground rather than going on a great, grand adventure in the sea of stars.  The seas of stars that seemed to be calling out her name daily, hourly, and every single second.

It is not that our first thought of, "What a pretty lighthouse," was incorrect.  It is that too often we stay stuck on that first thought, rather than seeing where it leads.  We don’t always follow the rabbit hole where there is a story waiting just beneath the surface of our first impressions.  When we stay on the surface, we don’t always connect what is happening outside to our story inside.  Your story of when you visited a lighthouse, craned your neck skyward to take in the tall structure, willed yourself up the flights of stairs to stand at the top looking down, and around the world from a new perspective.

Stay with me because I climbed all three hundred stairs to the top of this lighthouse (in Boca Grande Florida if you'd like to visit).  And at the very top of that structure, staring down, I took this photo:

Sorry if that gave you vertigo!

Two photos.

Taken the same day.

Within twenty minutes of each other.

Now what do you see?

Trees.

People who look smaller than ants.

Sidewalks.

Street.

Just a small part of the structure supporting me standing on top (which is a deeper truth because I only see a small part of the structure that supports me - or a trace of God's grace as I call it).

Small dots of plants or trees that were taller when I was standing on the ground.

The way creation and the work of human hands are put together.

Now, which photo and perspective is right? Or asked another way, which list of what we are seeing, and sensing is true?

This is what we do so often in the world.  We take our perspective, our photo of the world and superimpose it on everyone else.

We project.

We passionately defend that our photo of the world is right.

We won't listen to anyone else who is at the bottom looking up, because they should climb the stairs.  Never mind the lighthouse was in no way accessible to any one in a wheelchair!

Suddenly, we start to sense how vitally important focusing and framing is in our world today, how needed and necessary this practice might be for such a time as this.  My point is not for you at the end of this devotional to say, "Thanks, Wes, for the cute diversion and sharing a few photos.  Now, we are going to get back to what really matters, makes a difference."

We are caught in an endless cycle of focusing and framing then declaring and defending that our perspective and points of view are the correct course for everyone to travel.

The trace of God’s grace is allowing both photos above to sing to our souls.  Advent is about letting new perspectives enter, engage, and enlarge our frame!  This is my prayer in the days to follow.  This is my deepest conviction as I set out on the journey with you in the season of Advent.

But before we do, I want to share tomorrow a few more words about the ancient prayer practice we are up to in these Advent days.  For now, keep gazing and prayerfully pondering the frames of the world around and within you this day.

Blessings ~~