DEEP COMMUNION

Deep communication doesn't happen immediately upon the coming together of two people. Real communion takes time-time to get out of the world each has been in and into the world the two form together. You're probably wondering what I'm talking about. My point is that it takes time to enter into real communion with God. For example, imagine being in a rush and suddenly encountering an old friend. Perhaps, it is by running into him at a store, or perhaps he calls on the phone. Deep communion, no matter how much you two have had in the past, doesn't immediately take place. You first go through our American custom: "Hi! How are you?" "Hi! Fine. How are you?" "Oh, just great. Is everything O.K. with you." "Yeah. So, so. And how about you; everything all right with you?" And back and forth you two go in the redundant inquiry of one another's health. Then there's the trivial talk about the weather, or the news, or what you've been doing like mopping the kitchen. At this point each is still trying to come out of his world that he had been wrapped up in before the call. You two are not yet in the same world. Your conversation could be the same with a total stranger. Then it begins to happen. Perhaps, a memory is brought up: "Do you remember when we..." Maybe it is a problem one needs to share: "I just had to talk to some one, and you were always kind to listen." Then, perhaps, it is news about a mutual interest: "Did you hear about our ol' buddy___________?" Whatever gets the ball rolling, soon each has forgotten their own little private world from which each has just emerged and the two of you are sharing your hearts with each other oblivious to time, duties, and surrounding activities. It feels so good-that deep communion with a friend. But, it took time to get to that place. So it is with our communion with God. We get down to pray, but we are still wrapped in our own private world and not yet in His. We pray the usual ritual prayer one politely, customarily prays when coming before God. But we are not yet communing. If we quit at this point, we haven't got past the "Hi! How are you?"'s. But if we linger, if we keep talking and listening, fairly soon we will forget the world around us and be caught up in a world with just God and us in deep communion. And, oh, how good that experience is.