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Lingering

 

            One of my favorite spiritual words might be surprising.  It probably does not even seem like a spiritual word to most folks.  That word is “lingering.”  If you look it up in a dictionary, you will find that it means something like staying with something as it is leaving.  It means parting in a very slow fashion.  A third kind of meaning is to hang in there with something even while it is dying.

            I like the fact that it is a verb.  I or you can become the noun if we become “lingerers!”  But the word itself is a verb.  It is an action verb, but the action is slow and deliberate.  And I would grant, it is not essentially a spiritual word.  However over time, it has acquired spiritual overtones for me.  I’ll explain.

            When I pondered the dictionary meanings, the thing that struck me is the fact that lingering happens when something or someone is passing away.  Certainly, death is the stark example.  But it is true of all experiences.  We never stay in the same experience forever.  And some experiences are lightening fast.

            All of us go through countless experiences in our daily lives.  There are big experiences, like going to an hour meeting.  That takes one twenty-fourth of an entire day!  Or there are momentary experiences.  For example, I was startled yesterday when a door slammed shut.  But it was momentary.  I never gave it a second thought.

            As we think about it, most of our daily experiences come and go.  Most are not momentous.  Tons of them are routine and very ordinary.  That does not suggest they are meaningless. My morning stop for a cup of coffee is quite routine.  But it is not momentous and I could skip it and not really be upset.  It is not a lingering experience for me.

            I suggest the experiences that cause me to linger---or to want to linger---are those experiences dripping with importance or meaning.  The experiences which provoke lingering sometimes are very predictable.  Most of us remember those first girlfriends or boyfriends.  Just to be with him or her shaped the experience of actually being with them.  Time seemed to race and all-too-soon it was over…time to leave.  Just before leaving comes the lingering.  You say “good-bye,” but don’t want to shut the door!  You said “good-bye,” but did not want to hang up the phone.

            Lingering happens when we find ourselves in an experience that has a gravitational pull.  Some experiences have a depth that imbues them with meaning.  We do not want to have those experiences quit or die.  We linger at the door of such experiences, unwilling to leave.  In fact, we often linger even when the experience is gone.  I would argue all such experiences are spiritual.

            Spirit is a tough word to define.  One of my favorite writers describes spirit as that animating force God gives us of us which brings us into life.  I know the Latin word for spirit is anima, from which our word, animating, derives.  So whenever you are in an experience which animates you, probably you are going to want to linger.  Who does not want to stay where the Spirit, the anima, is moving?

            I confess that most of the animating experiences that happen to me seldom have the language of God being thrown around.  But wherever animating experiences are happening, I am confident the Spirit is blowing through them.  And every time I want to linger.

            As I reflect on this, I realize that fast-paced (or to the contrary, boring-paced) lives do not lead to lingering.  If nothing happens this day to want me to linger, maybe nothing important is happening!  Lord, help me not to live a linger-less day!

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