I’ve found myself feeling disturbed in response to some of the events in our world lately. I feel profoundly sad that 17 people were gunned down in Florida, and that in 2016 an outside party picked at and inflamed the divisions amongst us Americans, pushing us so far apart. And I can easily find some people to blame for it all. I’ve wondered where is God in all of this? I know that God is in the midst. But where? When a sorrow is so deep, it is a good thing to take time to reflect, to pray, to feel. It isn’t helpful to paper over with cheap answers events that touch our heart and soul so profoundly. So far, here is what I’ve uncovered within me, within these situations. A new energy of clarity, power, and integrity is rising. Values of standing together, being community, looking after one another are expressing. People are reaching out to comfort the grieving, to stand with them, holding them close. Vision of the good that is possible when we come to life from our wise heart is showing forth. Standing up in wholeness is spreading. This revelation of light within all of us is where I find God. The price of this birth of spiritual awareness is almost unbearably high. Yet when we reach out to each other, we can move forward one step at a time. As for those folks that I find easy to blame, God brought this Emmet Fox quotation into my view, “Let us be merciful in our mental judgments of our brothers and sisters, for, in truth, we are all one, and the more deeply they seem to err, the more urgent is the need for us to help them with the right thought, and so make it easier for them to get free.” One more time God reminds me to pray for those whom I judge, against whom I have a grievance. It is the only way that we are all going to be free. I hope that you will come to the Red Bench conversation this Tuesday evening at 6:30 PM–share a meal and a loving conversation with people from different faith walks. It is a powerful thing to do for it helps to shine God’s Light. It is the way to see as God sees.
In the Love and Light of the Christ,
Rev. Anna
