A Lesson on Lingering

Another morning.  Another day that You have made.   I have a choice to make this morning – to think about pain, dirt, gnats or to think about You.  Why would I allow my thoughts to linger in the muck and mire of life when there are so many lovely things to think about?  (from my journal entry dated April 28, 2012)

Linger is my word.  Our family jokes about my use of it knowing that it comes from my religious past.  For me it always evokes a negative feeling – if I linger, something bad will happen. Invitation songs with lines like these - “Careless soul, why will you linger; Wandering from the fold of God? Hear you not the invitation? O prepare to meet thy God.” Careless soul, O heed the warning, For your life will soon be gone; O how sad to face the judgment, Unprepared to meet thy God.”

The song’s message is a serious one, and not altogether inappropriate.  But all four verses came across to me as whip lashes of guilt intended to scare the unbeliever into a decision.  And if you linger (stay in a place longer than necessary, typically because of a reluctance to leave) you will be damned.  From my perspective, it seems like that’s all I ever heard in church – hell, fire and brimstone sermons followed by invitation songs meant to scare you into the  steps of salvation.  Except in my heritage, you couldn’t really know if you were saved.  Even after you were baptized, if you sinned and died before you asked forgiveness, you would go straight to hell.  That’s what it felt like as a child.  I seemed to have come away from that with a very toxic impression of the word linger.

However, on page 675 in the same old hymnal is a delightful song that more nearly represents the God I know and the response to Him that I have as an adult.  “I am resolved no longer to linger, Charmed by the world’s delight; Things that are higher, things that are nobler, These have allured my sight.  I will hasten to Him, Hasten so glad and free. Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee.”  Each verse encourages one to leave the negative aspects of life for all the benefits of a loving Saviour and to do it quickly – hasten.

So why would I choose to linger in destructive, negative thoughts when there is so much good to think about.  Why wouldn’t I linger over the joy of waking up to a new day? Linger over the truth that a loving God is in control.  Linger in the joy of His presence.  There is a time to hasten and a time to linger.  

I started this post weeks ago and in the process of lingering over the word linger, I have been set free of the word's negative effects!  You would not believe the countless times I have seen that word since I began this little segment of my journey.  Seems like every writer I respect and follow has used that word in the most positive and life-giving ways.  Linger, linger, linger..................I love it.

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