Twice Heard

Over the rest of that summer, I continued musing on this "wheel" idea as I called it, this looping, this sphere that grew from wheel within wheel, I began to see where scripture told the same "story" again and again.  I searched and found places where not only a Great Truth cycled through story after story, but where this wheel concept's form took shape itself through scripture. Dribbles of these ideas continued to melt across the pages for a long time.

July 7, 2005
Thank God, Jesus didn't choose to close the loop He was on at the Transfiguration, but endured to the Ascension!

Psalm 62:11 says "God has spoken once, twice I have heard:  That power belongs to God.  Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy; for You render to each one according to his work."  Here again is the idea of repetition, of echo, in another metaphor besides the turning of a wheel.  Proverbs 16:5 says, "Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established."  But the word commit most literally translates as roll.  Roll your works onto the Lord.  Here is that wheel of the spirit again. 


Interestingly, Psalm 62 was in my Bible reading this very morning, so I can observe most literally how my reflections 7 years ago compare to those today.  Today, my thoughts were more on other parts of that Psalm.  I did not need that laser focus on the one idea, for I've long since internalized that God speaks first, and we hear it echo again and again through the halls of humanity.  I've long since learned the value of recognizing what "wheel well" we're spinning along inside at any particular time--both as individuals and as societies. Because of this more seasoned knowing, I'm more attuned to the beautiful reassurances that precede that talk of twice hearing. Knowing that there are those forces out there--both hovering in the invisible realm and spurring on the hearts of men--who would set each divinely ordained wheel off its course, send it out of sync with its finish line, these other verses are strong comfort.  This is especially true when the sense of rolling our works onto God leaves us feeling utterly alone, and the enigma becomes to those around us as a hat on our very heads.  For these times, Psalm 62 thrums along until it reaches the talk of hearing God's Words and then hearing those same words again.

"For God alone my soul in silence waits...How long will you assail me, to crush me, all of you together, as if you were a leaning fence, a toppling wall?  They seek only to bring me down from my place of honor, lies are their chief delight.  They bless with their lips, but in their hearts they curse.  For God alone my soul in silence waits; truly my hope is in Him." 

As I muse on this idea of the same words rolling around for a second hearing, I think I understand a little better why talk of them is placed right after this diatribe on those who would knock down one God has chosen to honor.  I think of how His words often come at first as an enigma, and so we are vulnerable to attack from those who would make "lies their chief delight."  When Christ first told us to eat his flesh and drink his blood, many of the disciples responded, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?"  Indeed, His words often are an enigma because they are words of spirit, and we are creatures who most easily hear them with our flesh, making the physical reality our first point of interpretation. 
His answer to this?  "It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.  But there are some of you that do not believe."  (John 6:60~65.)

The wheel of the spirit begins to roll a new direction, and its course seems unreliable and out of character to what we've already learned and seen on the map.  We are left with one choice:  do we first and foremost trust the voice that said the words?
 "Jesus said to the twelve, 'Do you also wish to go away?' Simon Peter answered him, ' Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.' " (vs. 76-69.) 
The wheel rolls on its axis and meets the ground again and suddenly when we realize we are experiencing a day of echo, we discove rour confusion subsides, somewhere our believing became knowing; and that which at first seemed so illogical turns-seemingly in an instant-to become the surest course, the best option and how did we not see it before? 
So the wheel continues to roll...