Michael Helms took the picture. A man with a camera catching a moment in the life experience of two friends.
Whitestone Inn. A quiet “snapshot” of heaven out in the middle of nowhere Tennessee. A retreat where one can catch their breath. No WalMart Stores, no restaurants near by, just a wonderful place to breath in through your nose and exhale out through your mouth slowly and deliberately allowing stress to dissipate. Whitestone - a place where the cell phone signals are weak, computer connections are almost nonexistent, but front porches, swings, rocking chairs, quiet music, gazeboes, park benches, and hammocks flourish. The food is unspeakably good. The collection of friends unique. The grounds and buildings have been bathed in prayer for those who need to reconnect with God, themselves, and with friends. It is usually six days and five nights of respite and reconnection.
Let me change directions and then reconnect in a moment. I love my computer. I woke up at 4ish this morning – not an uncommon thing for me. I enjoy watching my internal GPS try and figure out where my 53 year old body is located. I eventually find a coffee pot, Starbucks coffee and a pot of water and introduce the three to each other for a 15 minute wait on some of the best coffee in the world. I admit that I am hooked on the stuff. I usually find my way back to my computer and open up three of four things on the computer. I open up my email account to read my emails. Facebook is the next trip I take and collect the common experiences of a great group of people I follow several times a day. I have reconnected with friends from Marietta High School, Truett-McConnell College, and began to travel with people in the church. I have learned so much about so many different people that way. I enjoy Twittering and for those of you who don’t know about it – www.twitter.com. I follow several close friends activities during the day and always get a big laugh as I watch them interact with life. I turn on Skype which gives me a chance to connect with people through my video camera. I also make sure that my Windows Live Messenger is up so I can talk to Jason from Maryland early in the morning as he gets to work. I am addicted to my “crackberry”. I own the Blackberry Storm and for the life of me, I don’t know how I survived without all that information at my very fingertips. I have a phone, email checker, twitter response, Facebook indicator, a lot of music that I can now download on it, and a lot of other things and applications that are available for me…it has a GPS, maps, address book, notes… I am getting tired thinking about them. High tech redneck…I am!
The joy in life is getting to know people face to face and heart to heart. It is so hard to get to know a person intimately (heart to heart) without looking at them face to face. Just the other day I have discovered with the help of those closest to me that I am forgetting how to listen. I have learned to respond to machines who don’t get their feelings hurt if I don’t listen to them. The machines have replaced the value in my life of face to face conversations…long walks…park bench conversations…front porch swings and rocking chair conversations with people I really enjoy… I am so sorry to say that here of late I have allowed my technology to get in the way of those closest to me.
Do you think that I would survive if I got home at night and cut my cell phone off and put it on the charger? I am going to try to survive. When I get to the office I might even leave the thing in the truck, so I can force myself to listen to people without the addiction of picking the thing up every time it beeps or vibrates. If you are one of those dear people who have felt the pain of my addiction, I am so sorry.
Face to face! Heart to heart! I am going on a journey to rediscover the joy of simply “being in the now” with people as we connect face to face and heart to heart. I am determined to let technology serve me instead of me serving it.
I am looking forward to Whitestone. The week after Easter calls me to take another trip to this quiet place and reconnect with friends. Rest is plentiful. Conversations will be welcomed. Even though diverse theologically, we will share in the commonality of life – bruises and all. Something inside me longs for that. I will not wait until then. The friend walking with me in the picture is Ken Smith. We see each other regularly. Sometimes it is face to face. At other times it is computer to computer or phone to phone. Nevertheless I am getting to old to let much time go by in seeing my friends. There is a table every Tuesday at Stefano’s Restaurant where four preachers share life right here in Florence. Ken Sandifer, W. L. Collins, and Daniel Inabinet are breaths of fresh air for me each week. I missed them yesterday because of the snow. There is a couch at the house where two lovers share in the commonality of life as partners and parents struggling through the daily issues of life. Nancy is the love of my life. It is a choice. It is work. Highly worth it, I might add. Face to face! Heart to Heart!
Time to send the disciples out. They were not perfect. They did not have a seminary degree nor 50 years experience. They were new at this. Jesus knew it. Thankfully, Christ is so patient with me. He journeys with me making me more like Himself. Thank God there is a learning curve.
What must it have been like to have been God and watch those you have created and given life – “breathed life into them” – walk away from Him! Folk that should know better seemed to care less about God and His ways. Sons of God were marrying daughters of men. Evil was prevailing and it seemed that all were giving in to the evil world.