What’s new?

Anyone who has ever phoned me just to chat has discovered that I seriously lack in conversational skills if I don’t have something new to talk about.  And once I’ve shared what’s on my mind, silence ensues which often makes the person on the other end of the line very uncomfortable.  My family has learned not to take offense or to prolong the agony of attempting to draw more out of me.   They do, however, often ask “Are you still there?”

Even more uncomfortable is the face-to-face meeting when I’ve exhausted the topics on my mind.  I find myself very quickly bored with small talk about the weather and other conversation fillers.  Perhaps this is why I don’t often receive those lunch date invitations….

My experience in the professional world helped broaden my ability to converse, as well as helping me reduce the number of times I simple end a conversation abruptly.  It still requires a very conscious effort on my part to sustain many of these interactions and not appear rude.  It’s not that I don’t like social interaction, I do.  I am very much drawn to discussions of things I am passionate about.  Other things, not so much.

Now that I work from home, I seem to have fewer things to discuss when I am in public.  Life is simpler and slower, many days go by with no conversation at all except with God.  I don’t mind.  I like the quiet.  I have learned to enjoy His presence without fear, completely comfortable in who I am before Him, accepting that He enjoys me too.  Just as I am.

When He asks me “What’s new?”, He gives me the answer.  He shows me things hidden about myself, some good, some not so much.  He reveals to me new ways to look at things, seeing myself and others through His eyes.  He unfolds the mysteries of Himself to me through even the most mundane activities of everyday life.  He is never boring and He is never bored with me, even if I have nothing to say.

His presence never gets old.  His love is never exhausted.  His patience never runs out.

What’s new?  He is.  Every moment of every day.

“It is because of the Lord’s mercy and lovingkindness that we are not consumed, because his tender compassions fail not.  They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness.  The Lord is my portion or share, says my living being, my inner self; therefore will I hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him.  The Lord is good to those who wait hopefully and expectantly for Him, to those who seek Him – who inquire of and for Him and require Him by right of necessity and on the authority of God’s word.”   Lamentations 3:22-25