H,
There is no hiding from the painful world around us. It will take a
herculean feat of closing our eyes and ears and hearts and souls to what is
really going on, to not feel the pain of abuse or war or violence all around
the falling and fallen state of the world we live in now. There is no story to
put in place of pain.
And I think it is important we face up to it. We have to stop webbing
these terrors with the veneer of respectability. We have to stop putting a spin
of life so we can all live better in the trap of it and not in the truth of
eventual solutions. There is something beautiful about the advocate, the peacemaker,
the activist and the one who shouts truth above power. There is something godly
and holy and sacred about the soul who sets about to face the sickness in the
world and, sometimes, in themselves with a heavy heart and a beautiful mind. That
to the common eye, they may seem to fail, is only our own lack of imagination.
The extra dimension for us, is that we actually do believe in divine redemption.
We think the world is on fire, but we also believe that there is a flood of
truth coming to restart the human heart. There is a Kingdom of light to come
and we try to be sparks for it, heralds, progenitors and harbingers of this eternal
truth. We do not miss the pain. We know it well. We know that there is violence
and darkness in the world and in us. We know we will give and receive pain. Our
only hope is in the painless era to come. We have bet big and large on the
grand idea that God is good, and the Lord is coming.
Amen.