This past weekend and the days leading up to it were so much fun. This community has a Spring Festival in which I participate through various singing, line dancing, and clogging opportunities. The days are filled with pie eating contests, crab races, Singo (musical version of Bingo), corn hole tournaments, kayak golf (retrieving “golf” balls from the Grand Canal in which this year even the manatees participated!), and four evenings of dancing to great live band music. Then the week started again which for me on Monday morning is quiet time with God and Scripture first thing in the morning, then line dancing class taught by my cousin Sandy (whose near death experience is a constant reminder of His miracles), onto Bible study group, and Hebrew class after that.

The juxtaposition of such a secular weekend (other than Shabbat and Zoom services, of course) alongside Monday’s normal  God-centered routines spurred this Shabbat encouragement . . . `

On Sunday evening during a slow dance at the festival as my glance fell on the many couples whose lives I am a part of, whose struggles I am aware of and have prayed about, I pondered how we live in this world at so many levels, and yet, simultaneously in our world with God as our focus. I watched one of the couples slow dancing in each other’s arms as I thought about their past year in which they lost an adult son to suicide, a young father with small children, their grandchildren now fatherless. Yet they were here dancing, supporting each other, no doubt struggling at times, yet quietly at rest in these moments, and even smiling during the faster dances too. So many have lost spouses, an inevitability given the age of many of us who live here, yet they also were dancing, smiling, making the best of this world. Sid and I, too, were able to immerse in the fun of the evening, be in that moment, despite life’s inevitable challenges. How about the state of the world as a start on that topic!

So this week’s Bible study group conversation seemed perfectly “synchronistically” timed as we discussed the Lord’s Prayer and dug into, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy  Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”. There were various takes on this in our very religiously diverse group from the reality of, need for, suffering here to glory someday in Heaven as mutually exclusive extremes with the concept of the interconnectedness of this earthly realm with Olam Ha-Ba (World to Come) as a middle ground.

Personally, I’m for the integrated approach, not just in the theological analysis but also such approach is more understandable to me in living out the practical day-to-day too. I’m not yet in Olam Ha-Ba.  I love feeling He is here, right now, with me, and engaging in life that way, which does not detract from my working toward the future Kingdom as well. For when I’m in conversation in the here and now with God so accessible through Yeshua, His model becomes so relatable, so palpable, so understandable, so motivating.

As I thought about the buzz of the weekend, although it was so much fun, I was so grateful for the quiet of the days that followed. It is in these quiet times that I feel His intimacy, His tailored guidance to me of what I need to do to be a better person. In the quiet I sense His guiding me to words of kindness as I hear others going down a darker path of conversation. I hear Him instead of them. Is that how He would be talking about another? Even in the soft, quieter sounds of the slow dance on Sunday evening  my mind’s eye could sense Yeshua’s arms around the couple who had lost their son. I knew that He was holding them too, comforting them while feeling their pain.

Experiencing the contrast of the more typical fast paced weekend festivities against the God centered routines this week made me aware of the blessing to know Him for before I did I would not even have had that mental image of the couple resting in the comfort of Yeshua’s arms. I would have just seen a couple slow dancing and thought that it’s so nice they could have a lovely dance moment together even while grieving. Or I may not even have thought about them and instead have just been enjoying my own dance with Sid.

Recognizing this difference in my world view is powerful to ponder. It is the recognition of this change in my entire perspective that strengthens my faith. What caused such a shift in my thinking? To remember how I used to think and how I do since knowing Yeshua is inexplicable other than to know in the deepest sense that Yeshua is who He said He was. The change in me happened immediately after I accepted Him as our promised Messiah. My heart overflowing with love of others comes from Yeshua’s overflowing love of each of us.

The love we receive from Him dwells in our hearts and creates our world views, our perspectives. This way of experiencing our lives, feeling the world, is “His Kingdom come, his Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” for He is with us always.

As these overwhelming thoughts arise, my heart overflows with gratitude for this life, for good health, for the ability to be a strong encourager to my brothers and sisters who are going through times of suffering, as they are there for me during my difficult times. I know that the support and love I receive at those times are from Him for we are His hands on earth to bring His love to this realm.

I feel like smiling, like all the time, and when I do and share that smile with those I randomly pass on the narrow streets of this small, close community, the smile is contagious. People’s days are brightened, as are mine, as they smile back. Our spirits are lifted, all through His Omnipresence.

The festival days are fun and I love being in this world in them. Yet I sense through Yeshua’s Presence in my heart that being in the world in these ways is not mutually exclusive of being with Him in a glorious spiritual sense too. His love, the Ruach, can permeate our daily activities and world views if we open our eyes and hearts to see and feel His presence.  Our world views become immersed in the reality of Yeshua’s love for us. We become guided in our hearts by the One who lifts us up in an inexplicable, undeserved grace to be His Beloved.

Perhaps it is in the quiet times, the early mornings as each day starts, that we are best able to hear the promptings of His love of us, the times we need to prepare for the days’ activities, secular or spiritual. When we intentionally seek Him in these ways, we become able to recognize the loving hand of Yeshua in our lives permeating our daily activities, our daily lives in this world, preparing us and leading us to grow toward the lives we will someday have in the Kingdom to come. In so doing, we experience the most amazing both/and we can possibly imagine, and so do those with whom we share life’s journey

Your week is filled with so many opportunities to fill your life with Him. It’s not an either/or, secular versus spiritual, but rather, the best ever both/and. Enjoy!

Shabbat shalom.

Diane