FROM  THE  INSIDE

Sometimes we’re talking, just talking

to someone - and to be honest -

without much thought, it’s chitchat.

It’s not even a trivial pursuit.

We’re at a coffee break or outside church

or at a wedding - just two people at a

round table. The others are on the dance

floor - or the bathroom - or wherever folks

disappear to at a wedding and we’re alone -

but this time with a person we never really

talked to ever, ever, ever  before.

Then - for some rare reason - the

conversation becomes different - 

very, very different. This other person

is actually talking to us - and we find

ourselves looking them right in the eye. [1]

We haven’t done that in years - maybe

never, never, ever, ever….

They are talking serious - mentioning

stuff from their inside - and we let out

a little bit of ourselves - from the me

inside the me of me. [2]

Driving along - alone - a month or two

later - we find ourselves thinking about

that moment. We realize we can actually

talk to another from our inside.

We get what Jesus meant about

the inner room - and talking from

the heart - from the deep within -

where our deepest intentions are. [3]

We now know the difference between

everyday chatter and real talk - something

we have started to do a bit more now.

We hear singers different. We sense  

that some can sing a song 100 times

and each time it’s from within - and not

just lip and word memory while looking

at the clock in the back of the hall. “Yeah!” [4]

In church we begin to know the difference

between sermons that are authentic -

heart to heart - not just tape recordings

from the pulpit - from another’s past.

“Yeah!”

We know there is a world of difference

between words - and  words made flesh -

words coming out of a life lived - out of

love: passion, death and resurrection.

                                                                   © Andy Costello, Reflections 2016

Notes:

[1] Matthew 6:22;7:22-23

[2] Matthew 6: 5-6

[3] Matthew 15:18-20

[4] Thanks for Harry Chapin for the thoughts for this reflection - found in his song, “You Are the Only Song”  - as well as a quote from Charles Péguy, “A word is not the same with one writer as it is with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket.”