I am fascinated by the city, particularly Nashville. I have fallen deeply in love with this place. In fact, I never knew what being in love with a city could feel like--until I moved to Nashville. More than the city though, I love the people I share it with--my very best friends. Long after the the city lights have faded, the beeping horns have hushed, and the looming city mist has subsided, this place, is at the end of the day...well, just a place. What is a place without the joy, love, and people that inhabit it? It is an empty vacuum. We need love, need to give love, and most importantly show love. In Nashville, this concept is so invasive. It is not invasive because of the city--it is invasive because of those I share it with. As someone wise once told me (Hi Becky), love drives everything. It certainly does.
This poem is beautiful and brilliant--we can be "in" the city, but we shouldn't be "of" the city. Sounds familiar, huh? Christ said something very similar. "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world." (John 17:14) How do we make this relevant? How can we make this real and tangible? Love God and love people.
Exit
I have to leave the city now, she said,
Or dash my soul against my will instead.
I do not wish to have the quiet part of me
That once could rest (the part
That could just be) tossed
Aside and left somewhere
For dead.
Tonight it seems to me
That what some friends call energy
Is nothing more than a phenomenon of nature known as
"Incurable Whirling Disease."
Please, take me far from here, she said,
The buildings sting and echo
With the fumy cries of yellowjacket cars.
I took her hand in mine and said,
I'm thinking of a place now
Where I used to have to tell myself
Aloud,
Those are not clouds,
They're stars.
Copyright 2007, Linford Detweiler
I haven't read anything this moving in quite some time. I am truly moved. Are you?
