Excalibur

Happy are those who don't listen to the wicked, who don't go where sinners go, who don't do what evil people do. They love the Lord's teachings, and they think about those teachings day and night. They are strong, like a tree planted by a river. - Psalm 1

Random word association is a funny thing. Sometimes it's profound, sometimes odd, once in a while amusing, and - on rare occasions - it makes me wonder if God is trying to tell me something.

This morning, walking Scout early enough for the air to still be in the low 70s, a car flashed by that I didn't recognize. I ran through some brand names in my head until I settled on Dodge Caliber. Immediately, an image of the knights of the Round Table popped into my mind, then Sir Lancelot, then some knight throwing a weapon into a lake - but couldn't think why.

After a good 15 minutes, having run through pretty much everything I know about Arthurian legend, I stumbled on the Sword-in-the-Stone and realized that the blur of an outline of a speeding car had somehow conjured Excalibur (ex-Caliber) - the legendary sword thrown into the lake at Arthur's request at the end of his life, and that the stories of the Round Table had all poured through the opening in my subconscious unrestrained, like water through a break in a dam.

I was particularly interested in the chain of events - chain of thoughts - because my Wednesday study group is talking about meditation this evening. And the point of meditation is to un-clutter the mind and spirit so that the distractions of the world around cannot - so readily - steer us away from the spiritual and trap us in the mundane.

The word "mundane" is typically used to describe the everyday or unremarkable... but the real meaning of the word is more properly unspiritual. "Characteristic of or devoted to the temporal world as opposed to the spiritual world."

I was already in the meditation frame of mind. I'd read the scripture from Psalm 1 and thinking about this evening's discussion. So, naturally, I wondered if I was distracted by the car or if - possibly - God was now a part of the discussion because I was in a meditative frame of mind and spirit?

Regardless, I completed my meditative walk with the image of Excalibur in my consciousness, and couldn't help but think about "The Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" (Ephesians 6). And I determined to engage this particular day appropriately armed, equipped with God's Word.

Like I said, today's thoughts have been fairly random. But I see God in it - always - it's what I do...

- DEREK