“I just can’t figure you out.” She says casually. Perhaps not meaning to make a big statement; not realizing that she has pretty well summed things up. He wipes a hand slowly down his face, stretching it out at the chin.
“Figure me out?” He finally manages.
“Yeah. I’m not sure I get you. I don’t know where to put you – in my life.” She pauses.
He clears his throat. “Don’t you think we’re kind of ‘in’ each other’s lives whether we’re ‘put’ anywhere or not? Why do I have to fit somewhere instead of just being part of it? And, what happens once you get me all figured out?”
The waiter stops and stands in front of me. I turn my attention to him; smile back, and place my order.
“How do you want your egg?”
“Sunny side up, please. A little runny.”
“White or wheat?”
“Do you have rye?”
“I think. Let me check –”
“No. No, wheat’s fine.”
“Meat?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Bacon, Canadian bacon, ham, sausage patty, sausage links…”
“Ham, please.”
“Coffee?”
“No. Just a small orange juice.”
“Got it.”
“Oh, wait. And a cinnamon roll.”
“And a cinnamon roll.”
“Yep. Thanks.”
“Be right back with your juice.”
Checking my watch, I have plenty of time before my appointment, and it is just a few blocks away. Someone has left an unfinished crossword behind. A couple guys eating at the counter are discussing politics – or sports – hard to tell.
Everything finally makes it out to the table and I get to thinking. At Lydia’s the other night they were talking about Abraham and Sarah. Quite a pair, those two. I like them. Especially Sarah, who laughed! Of all the ways people in the bible respond to God, Abraham and Sarah seem the most accessible to me. The most humble. The most real. But, then someone started in on this “Abraham as friend of God” thing. What it means and what it does not. Taking a point of contact and turning it into a roadblock. I think when the bible says Abraham was a “friend of God,” it means just that.
* * *
While making rounds with the coffee pot, the waiter notices that the man at table fourteen has left. He finds enough money on the table to cover the bill as well as an extremely generous tip. He also finds the following prayer, carefully handwritten on a napkin:
“Forgive me, Old Friend, for all the times I make a puzzle of you. Playing our relationship like a game with letters, lines and boxes. Pieces fit to my way of thinking. Forms patterned according to my wanting to win or just not wanting to lose. Excuse me, Dear Neighbor, for approaching as though you were a problem rather than welcoming you as an honored guest. I am truly sorry, Wonderful Counselor, to find how often I hold my own positions dearer than your confidence and trust. Here is my heart. Here is my hand. Would you take them, please? And, might we walk together? Amen.”
“Excuse me!” The young couple who have been arguing over in booth five wave to get the waiter’s attention. “Check, please.” They seem anxious to leave. Without missing a beat, he puts the napkin-prayer quietly away and turns to them.
“You’re good.” He smiles. “The guy that was sitting here bought you breakfast.”
“I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.” ~John 15:15
* With apologies and appreciation to M. Jagger & K. Richards!
Daily Prayers for Moravians Has Moved!
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Please note: The Daily Prayers for Moravians Blog has now moved to
https://www.moravian.org/daily-prayers-for-moravians/. I have now ceased
publishing here...
5 years ago
5 comments:
I seem to recall Kierkegaard calling Abraham a "knight of God" a little different than a friend, one who was willing and able to kill his own son for God's sake. Something terrifying about that kind of friendship.
There is something awful about that friendship. Or, as K:gaard put it, something "dreadful." But, K.'s "Fear and Trembling" begins with "A Panegyric upon Abraham." Through praise and the idea of infinite resignation, virtue of the absurd, and paradox of faith, he concludes, "By faith Abraham did not renounce his claim upon Isaac, but by faith he got Isaac."
I feel that this story, and K:gaard's study of it, resonate painfully with a long history of religious violence. K.'s criticism strikes home. We do often speak of the Akedah (Binding of Isaac) without "dread." ...
"Yes, if Abraham the instant he swung his leg over the ass's back had said to himself, 'Now, since Isaac is lost, I might just as well sacrifice him here at home, rather than ride the long way to Moriah' - then I should have no need of Abraham, whereas now I bow seven times before his name and seventy times before his deed. For this indeed he did not do, as I can prove by the fact that he was glad at receiving Isaac, heartily glad, that he needed no preparation, no time to concentrate upon the finite and its joy. If this had not been the case with Abraham, then perhaps he might have loved God but not believed; for he who loves God without faith reflects upon himself, he who loves God believingly reflects upon God."
...
"Let us then either consign Abraham to oblivion, or let us learn to be dismayed by the tremendous paradox which constitutes the significance of Abraham's life, that we may understand that our age, like every age, can be joyful if it has faith... The comic contradiction in the behavior of the orator is that he reduced Abraham to an insignificance, and yet would admonish the other to behave in the same way." ~Soren Kierkegaard
thewaiter1I am afraid I am not quite so literate as the previous two posters... but I enjoyed your story. Thanks.
Peace, mTw
Some of the ancient rabbis in their commentary on the same subject have suggested the story was "cleaned up" and that Abraham actually killed Isaac and Isaac was then resuscitated by God. I am not sure what that implies except that Abraham's faith was scary.
I apologize to Mike if he thinks we are putting on airs by posing "literate" questions. I would suggest, though, that if he is reading and enjoying this blog he is pretty literate also!!!!
Well, I thank you and Mike both - and all you other readers - not just for the literacy, but for taking part in this sharing of ideas.
In a journal entry on Jan. 4, I wrote, "How does it feel to be a problem?" I was talking to God, but it's also a book by M. Bayoumi about being young and Arab-American. I also remember this being an idea dealt with by Ralph Ellison and/or Du Bois on race, in general, and being African-American in particular.
The more I thought this through, it occurred to me that many of us often do treat relationships as problems, challenges, puzzles, etc. Things to be fixed, managed, resolved, etc.
"Waiting On A Friend" is a narrative exploration of this interpersonal dynamic. But, that napkin prayer really is a statement of belief that we relate to God and God relates to us in much the same way and with many of the same difficulties as we (human beings) face in relating to one another.
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