happy new year
dive into disruption
2024 started like none other in our experience. On Monday morning, Banu was awakened very early in the morning to the sound of my mom crying out. It turned out she had had a stroke. So it was off to the hospital. (Visits there help explain my lack of writing in 2024.)
A week later she went to a rehab facility.
One might say there has been a disruptive start to the year. “Disruptive” isn’t usually seen in a positive light. But sometimes life needs to be disrupted. I’m talking about disrupted in a Moses at the burning bush… Esther drafted into the king’s harem… Saul (a.k.a. Paul) on the road to Damascus… sense.
Banu and I have been speaking of a “spirit of familiarity.” That is, becoming too used to the familiar, the way we’ve always done things. (A “familiar spirit” is something more sinister.) Psalm 81 relays the thought, “I heard an unfamiliar voice saying, ‘I eased his [your] shoulder from the burden; his [your] hands were set free from bearing the load.’” (from the Book of Common Prayer with help from the NRSV)
On that note, this is from Banu’s Facebook post on New Year’s Eve regarding a message from the Lord: “Break the spirit of familiarity. Break agreement with how you see, hear, and speak… See from heaven’s perspective. Listen to Spirit’s perspective. Speak only from the Word’s perspective. Move in Kingdom perspective. Readjust your sight, check your focus, clean your ears. Recalibrate your circumstances. Set your mind on Kingdom rules.” She ends the post with the thought, “May 2024 anoint us all with the power and miracles of the Kingdom.”
So is 2024 a time for disruption and anointing? I suppose it is as much as any other year. Still, as is often the case, it feels like uncharted territory. Much is asked of us, but are we up to the task? I, for one, am in need of disruption and shaking — like it or not!
Disrupting the familiar. The familiar describes our sad, tired, and sinful world. Yet, the joyful, exuberant, and holy can also be familiar! Or perhaps we can say they take root in the familiar and burst forth into the supra-familiar. (Is that a word?)
May 2024 be graced with the supra-familiar.
