A Good Conversation

Yesterday we heard this said: a good conversation is a manifestation of the Kindom* of God. What do you think?

Many times we think of God’s appearing in this world as dramatic, powerful, or obvious. But what if most of the ways God shows up is in the simple things like a sunrise and in gratitude and even in ordinary conversations? Take a moment to sit with this old pastor’s insights:

I discovered that if you really keep your eye peeled to it and your ears open, if you really pay attention to it...there is no event so commonplace but that God is present within it, always hiddenly, always leaving you room to recognize him or not to recognize him...If I were called upon to state in a few words the essence of everything I was trying to say both as a novelist and as a preacher, it would be something like this:  Listen to your life.  See it for the fathomless mystery that it is.  In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness:  touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace. - Frederick Buechner

Perhaps the single most common phrase Jesus spoke was this: "Whoever has ears, let them hear" (Matthew 13:9). Today, try to pay attention to your conversations. Where is the Spirit at work - not in the big conversations, but in the small ones?

*Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz coined this term in her Mujerista Theology to reframe the masculine ‘kingdom’ into a more family oriented phrase, which captures the very heart of Jesus.