three figures

Let's see if I can make a devotional here. I haven't worked on one in a while. Originally I'd reacted against the typical devotional that begins with "I really love ice cream" or "It was a day like any other day". To me, these beginnings are like tepid coffee. There's no excuse. No good excuse to me. That first sentence should be the crack of a whip or an ominous tone on a marshy moorland. "The jettisoned rocket engine obliterated my Hummel collection when it barreled through the roof." "Sometimes when my mother is talking and I'm distracted by a bit of food caught between my rear molars, I understand those women who snap and, entirely out of character, leave home and never return." Those are compelling beginnings for a devotional. 

When I was lost in the mountains, I had a vision. I was half-way through my last provision, a Milky Way bar, and had decided to make way down a ravine to a creek. The creek, as is common in the mountains, was much further away than I'd calculated. The whole trip was a series of miscalculations, so why stop now - I thought to myself. Thank goodness it was early afternoon and the days were long. 

I knew though that I might have to spend this night and most of the next day trying to find my way back. How difficult could it be? My memory of the map told me that once I'd found this creek I should be able to follow it to a larger river where the campground was. That's about what happened. I had to spend another night in the wild, but the next day I emerged from the cottonwoods and aspens onto this little campground. 

After 48 hours and only a few handfuls of berries, I was ravenous. I took a late model Miata (someone left their keys on the seat - incredible) and drove into town. I'd never been there before and had no idea where I was. I still can't remember the name of this place. Twenty years later, when I go on google maps looking for it, I can find the ravine and the river and the campground, but I can't find this town. Otherwise I'd be able to find that little diner I'd stopped at. I did have some money and so was able to order a large breakfast. 

I drove a little longer and took the opportunity to leave the Miata at a bus stop. Right then a Trailways had stopped to let off a young woman carrying a suitcase. I've never seen anyone look so lonely. No one was there to greet her. Thankfully,  I had enough money to travel near enough home for my sister to pick me up. 

Since then, I've remained true to the vision I saw. At first I thought I was suffering hallucinations - lost and hungry as I was, desperate even. At each step of the way, God has provided.

How was that? Someone might say, "that's a horrible devotional! You imply a narrator who seems unreliable. He steals a car - without remorse - just as a matter of fact. He steals a car and calls it "God's provision"! And the vision - that important vision! at least you get back to it, but you verge on a shaggy-dog story with it. You don't even tell us what the vision was! How can we get anything from this when the most important background is left out?" But what I like about it is that the vision is unknown. If I told you the vision, you would be trying to take a lesson from it. Just like St Paul doesn't tell you what the vision he has when he goes up to the third heaven - the point isn't the content of the vision: the point is having had a vision in and of itself. As to the unreliable narrator - Aren't most authors of these bland devotionals unreliable when you think about it? The moment they declare that they "really like ice cream" I doubt them. They would be more specific (chocolate, rocky road, butter pecan) if they really did - they'd wax on about homemade vs store bought, Mayfield vs Blue Bunny.

As to the amorality, I think a good devotional should have an element of the macabre - like something out of Poe. Imagine Poe, Twain and Dorothy Sayers late at night, drinking, writing - what might they come up with?  Something worth living a few hours extra on this little spot of blue in the midst of such a vast emptiness that Pascal said it gave him the willies.