in the cleft of the rock

The “Grandmother of the Civil Rights Movement," Septina Poinsette Clark, is quoted in my daily read, COMMON PARYAER – A LITURGY FOR ORDINARY RADICALS by Shane Claiborne, et al. This gave me pause this morning. “I have a great belief in the fact that whenever there is chaos, it creates wonderful thinking. I consider chaos a gift.”

What do you think about that? Is chaos a gift?

Over the past few weeks, my mind has been swirling – sifting and sorting as I continue to process an encounter that rocked my world. Misunderstood, I was thrown into the noise of confusion and fear.  I’ve had to step back into the cleft of the rock and listen for the still small voice.

A few weeks ago if you had given me Clark’s words I would have scoffed.  Chaos a gift? Not! Yet, today I can see the truth that chaos has the potential to create wonderful thinking. Chaos has invited me to step into silence and solitude to quiet the monkey thoughts.

There’s a story of a dejected prophet who was at the end of his rope.

He was desperate – literally running for his life.

I can only imagine that he may have felt he had gone from the frying pan into the fire when he encountered a great and powerful wind (which) tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, 
“What are you doing here, Elijah?”

1 Kings 19:11-13

I hear the same question being asked of me.
What are you doing here, Linda? 
This pause has reminded me – once again, that the gift of grace can be found anywhere – even between a rock and a hard place – in the cleft of the rock. It is here that I will root down to rise up.