37: “Whaf it don’t?” Fast from Certitude… Just for Today

He towered above the crowds. With his signature “gentleman’s hat” rising above his lean stature, about 6’6″ — and always dressed as a gentleman should be.

His young grandson was never far away when the distance of miles between them was eliminated, but even in absence there was always a spirit of presence between them.

“Pa” the boy of five asked, “how come all the grown up men are always so mad when they talk to one another?”

The pensive older gent chuckled to himself as he simply responded, “They think it helps, but actually it doesn’t change anything except their mood.” The boy looked quizzical, but refrained from further questions as the old black Buick stopped at the coffee shop in South Omaha for the ritual gathering of those retired from corporate lives but not from feeling responsible.

​
The two took their places around the table and the young lad watched and listened to the banter which reminded him of a ping pong match — back and forth, back and forth…with a point won here or there. While it was decades ago, the cause and effect debate that characterized the daily ‘coffee talk’ — could have happened yesterday at Starbucks.

If this happens, then that will happen and then that will happen and finally that will happen and then it will all be over.
Finished. Doom will have swallowed up the future.

Listening intently, he tugged on his Grandfather’s suit jacket, knowing the expectation that he wait until the right moment. In just a moment, the tall wisp of wisdom reached, over to inquire what was needed.

With a strong voice of a child knowing far more and far less than those who surrounded the table he asked , “But Pa, Whaf’ it don’t?”

“Whaf it don’t?” the Grandfather asked. His smile let the boy know that in this case inquiry was welcome, “All these bad things each guy said — “whaf it don’t happen?” And one by one, the seniors insisted, “But it will.” And the sage disguised in a child’s voice simply said, “Whaf’ it don’t?”

Whaf it don’t?

My grandfather, whose wisdom and knowledge far surpassed my wildest self-expectation, took my brother’s five year old proclamation as one of his greatest spiritual teachings. Maybe it’s age, or grace, or life’s journey, but this Lent…this story that has been housed deep within me has resurrected with the whisper and force that is one of the ways God communicates with me.

“Whaf’ it don’t?” — Just what if I the “opposing bench” has a point? Just what if the answer I defended is not the final answer. Just what if I need to stand in the ambiguity of not knowing instead of keeping score on the conversion rate of each round of my own coffee talk?

​
​Just for Today…I am Fasting from Certitude

Just for today, I am catching myself in the litany of what is inevitable — whether it’s about the weather or finances or the world — not to solve the challenges, but just to catch myself being certain. Just for today, I am standing in the possibility that there are two ways to fold a bath towel that are equally good, that perhaps brussel sprouts have value, that my work ethic is not the only way to life a meaningful life, and that every time I draw a line that creates “we and they” … I inevitably realize that Jesus is not only on my side, but I see him on the other side too … God doesn’t only love the Nebraska Cornhuskers … and when I actually sit at the table with someone who doesn’t see the world as I do, there is the possibility of a bridge…

This seems impossible for someone who loves to debate everything from the meaning of life to the superiority of corn-fed beef. Today is not solving problems…today, is just to let “Whaf’ it don’t” exist…and as I prefer a GPS device to being lost and like to remain teachable …. I am grateful to follow the directions of today’s first reading…to be able to fast ‘Just for Today’

​

​”If you remove from your midst oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech;
If you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become like midday;
Then the Lord will guid you always
and give you plenty even on the parched land.
Your strength will be renewed,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring whose water never fails.”
Isaiah 58​