At first the film Gravity seemed too fantastic. I mean when would I be dressed like an astronaut working on a space shuttle like Sandra Bullock’s character Ryan Stone? Then I recognized the spin. You know the one. Weightless without gravity she turns and spins with no direction, no stopping and no grounding. She is frightened, untethered and alone.
And there it is. Our contemporary busy-ness. Life without faith, without purpose, without spiritual weight. We rush to accomplish spinning from one project to another. We accumulate wealth and prized objects. We wonder why we never have time to slow down.
At the end of the film, she crashes through earth’s atmosphere, swims up through water to air, and finds herself pinned to the muddy lake shore by gravity. Blessed, sacred gravity. And she utters the third prayer of her life: Thank you. (Her first prayer asked for the ability to pray: Help! Her second prayer was one of surrender: I’m ready.)
Jesus is my gravity. When I spin into lost and despairing thoughts, he finds me in his love. When I fly off enthusiastically ready to conquer a million projects, he grounds me in the one next step to take. When I float endlessly seeing little progress in my work, he roots me in his ministry. And if I am exhausted, spent, dirty, lonely and spinning in space, I fall with the gravity of his love and whisper: Thank you.
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