Yesterday one of my dearest friends died. We first met 28 years ago, and from our first meeting we sensed an affinity that is hard to explain and requires no explanation because friendship is gift, grace, goodness and gratitude all bundled together in a congruence of mind and heart.
In due course I'll say more. I mention my friend here because this is Buechner week, and I've been re-reading and re-thinking Buechner's wisdom. There is a spiritual family resemblance between my friend's and Buechner's take on God and the graced life. In 28 years we had countless conversations about the meaning of God, and love, and what it means to be human, and how to reach out to the other, and who Jesus is for us and our broken world today, and why blessing is the default setting of any heart openly receptive to the love of God that is always there before us, and behind us. When I read Buechner, I think he has been reading my friend's diary, overhearing many of those conversations, wishing he could interrupt and agree or disagree by saying, 'But have you looked at it this way?'
Here is Buechner on love, words that coincide exactly with my friend's theology, and mine.
Of all powers,
love is the most powerful and the most powerless.
It is the most powerful because it alone can conquer
that final and most impregnable stronghold
which is the human heart.
It is the most powerless
because it can do nothing except by consent.
To say that love is God is the most romantic idealism.
To say that God is love is either the last straw,
or the ultimate truth.
Wishful Thinking, 50-54
The photo was taken a stone's throw from my friend's house. An exuberant garden was one of his delights, probably because such profusion of colour, variety and vitality answered to much in his own inner world.
sorry to hear about your friend Jim. been really challenged by your last few posts. I was wondering would you recommend any books of sermons by Beuchner.
Posted by: gavin | March 23, 2012 at 12:03 PM
I'm sorry to catch up and hear of your friend's death. Thank you for posting the Buechner quote, which I shall cut and paste and keep!
Posted by: chris | March 29, 2012 at 05:52 PM