Glory 11 - Sit Long, Talk Much
Earlier today, we went down to the Pearl Street Mall as I often do when back here in Colorado. My dad told me about a new puzzle place there called Liberty Puzzles. Liberty makes beautiful puzzles out of wood pieces and the pieces are all incredibly unique and intricate. They had a sample jar where you could take a few random pieces home. There was a wonderful thing on the wall that my mom pointed out to me that said, “Our puzzles are designed to deliver hours of non-digital entertainment, as a social experience for friends and family to spend quality time together...There is nothing like plunking a hefty wooden piece into place, it’s the perfect group activity. So do what we always recommend: Sit Long, Talk Much.”
It reminded me of Curtice’s commenting on what playing Rummy has meant to her and her husband and how that was the game they played over and over again and how that simple game was so much of a connecting place for them. In my family, it wasn’t Rummy, but it was Uno (specifically the Toy Story 3 variant) and Skip-Bo. We have played those games so many times that the cards are all frayed and worn but we continue to play them. But when we play, it is “sit long, talk much.”
I think in faith, we try to over-complicate things in our connecting to one another and connecting to God. Churches too often feel like they have to over-program things to get people to come together. Yet the best times and deepest times come over a game of cards, a puzzle worked on together, cups of tea or coffee, a basketball game, a shared hike, a time of praying together. Jesus exemplified this in that he so often just sat down and talked with people over meals. It wasn’t elaborate. Just a lot of sitting and a lot of talking.