I was sitting on the porch reading with my wife the other
day and she made the comment, “Every time I read 1 Samuel 1-3 I hear Jill
Briscoe’s voice.” Jill Briscoe is a
Bible teacher whose memorable teaching on Samuel has stuck with my wife for
literally, decades.
Her statement reminded me of my own experience of “hearing
voices” and set me to thinking…
Some 15 or so years ago I was introduced to Between the Dreaming and the Come True,
and Living Prayer, a couple of books
by Robert Benson. Several of my friends
including the Mars Hill Dinner Club (This dinner club is story in itself.) were
reading the books and found them to be intriguing if somewhat outside our box
in terms of how he described prayer.
At the end of Living
Prayer the bio noted that Robert Benson does prayer retreats and gave his
contact information, an address. Not
believing for a moment that an actual author would ever reply to a letter, I
wrote Robert asking if he would do a weekend retreat for some friends and me. Some time passed, (See, I knew a real author
would not have time for the likes of us…) and I was surprised to receive a hand
written letter from Robert saying he did indeed do retreats and he would be
glad to lead one for us, preferably at St. Mary’s retreat center in Sewanee,
Tn.
To make a long story short, the retreat with Robert was life
changing for each of the 12 guys who attended that retreat. I dare say none of us has approached prayer since
in the same way we did prior to that weekend.
One of the “different” things that Robert did as he led us was to read
segments from his books to us. His
reading and teaching became ingrained in my mind such that I cannot read a
Robert Benson book, I have read 15+ to date, without heard his voice “reading”
it to me. I hear the familiar tone, the
soft voice, the pauses for emphasis, the strong breath through his nostrils,
and his characteristic inflections.
Robert’s books are always heard in Roberts’s voice.
That retreat became the first of many and spawned lunches in
Nashville, or halfway between, and initiated a personal friendship that has
endured these 15+ years. Somewhere in
that span, Robert wrote a book about the brokenness of the church (The Body Broken) using as an
illustration of the Body coming together as one, a lunch shared between Robert
and a rag tag contingent of us from Knoxville at the old Union Station. We were not named, but there was no missing
his description of each of us. I must
say there is something special that happens to a relationship when the author
writes you into his story.
This experience of reading words written by an author, to hearing
his voice read the words, followed by my own reading of his words and hearing
his voice, and now having a portion of my story written and read into the
authors story seem a wonderful metaphor for the life of one who is following
Christ. Someone “recommends” or even
reads His words to us and we are drawn to what is being read. This drawing leads to a personal encounter
and hearing of the words said, after which in our own reading the words are
heard in the voice of the One who spoke us into being. And yes, the wonder then of experiencing the
joy of being written into the author’s story as we follow him.
Namaste*
*This is the closing in all of Robert’s letters.
If you would like to know about Robert Benson here is a link to his web page.
http://www.robertbensonwriter.com
