Witness

An experience that sheds meaning on my life is a good thing. Understanding the fullness of the meaning is another good thing, related to the first experience. With the expanded understanding, other things in life become more known and understood. That’s what I mean by witness. Seeing, hearing, experiencing.


Now, in religious life, we hear of people ‘bearing witness.’ Usually that refers to a church person standing up in their congregation and telling others that he or she experienced an event or happening that brought him/her closer to God. Perhaps it was feeling or sensing Christ in some way that made it very real. Perhaps they wished to describe a ‘calling’ to action that came from a religious conviction.


I suppose a part of my term of ‘witness’ derives from the previous paragraph. However, I feel compelled to expand that meaning. For example, Rocky’s recent pre-surgery circumstances questioned whether he would survive the surgery. We feared surgeons would encounter a situation once they opened him up that was hopeless. They warned us of this happening. If it did happen, they would make him comfortable but withdraw from further surgical intervention. His prognosis would likely have been one to two months to live.


That didn’t happen. The surgery was not only successful, but the circumstances were better than they had hoped and 3 of the 8 surgeries planned that day were avoided. That sped up recovery and quality of medical condition. Rocky survived the surgery and has an excellent prognosis. A lot of things have to happen, but long-term he has multiple years of future life ahead of him.


We went into surgery with more than 100 people saying they would pray for him. The results were very good. I infer from that – no, I learned from that – prayer works. Good things can happen as the result of prayer. I believe that. I don’t think this is hocus pocus. I accept the power of prayer.


Now, that does not mean I believe that we can pray for wonderful things and success in all things. In fact, I now realize that life contains many simple wonders that we often do not recognize. Sometimes, serious things survived provide appreciation for the little things in life.


I have come to love early morning: early light, threads of sunshine beginning to light the landscape, fresh smell of humid air of the day, awakening birdsong gladdening our surrounds, even the gladdening. That alone is a little thing that is not little.


The little things are big in and of themselves. They amass to a wonderous presence of good in the world.


We miss much of this because of aches, pains and irritations. Newscasts are irritations mostly. They tell of negative things, awful things, harbingers of more bad things. We become engrossed in all this negativity and the good is masked, covered up, not seen.


Witness is an intentional act of telling others of what you notice that matters.


It matters to me that I can smell plants growing, that I hear the tiny rustle of budding breeze in tender, young foliage. I see droplets of dew on the edges of flower petals. I smell sweetness of blooms. I taste butter on my toast, in my eggs, in a pastry. I know butter is there; its distinctive taste tells me that. It is a blessing of life. You are a blessing in my life.


Yes, you, known or unknown, you are part of the ‘we’ of community life. That is a blessing for certain. Knowing what to do with this blessing is entirely another matter. So let’s remain with the simple, the blessing itself, the spying of it in our midst.


Witness tells me I am alive and notice things. I am not so busy living that I miss what living is for.


Allow this to happen in your life. Give it a try. Or just let it become.


August 5, 2019