O God, Never Let a Soul Be Lost to You...

May 3, 2013

The news of the day is disheartening. Mistrust, fear, and acrimony fill the air… putrid smells not borne of the goodness of You, O God, and the blessing of creation and a realization that life on this planet earth, life in the echo of Resurrection is so precious, so fragile. Let us... let me... not in the drive of self-interest forget that you are God, and we are not. I am too quick to condemn and judge. Perhaps the most evident and visible way I am created in the image of God is in my surety of judgment. How is my judgment in your image, Dear God? You who are ready to forgive and accept? I fail in my rush to damn and condemn. I fail in self-righteous ways: closed ears and the closed heart of false piety.  Forgive me. More and more I feel in my heart the conviction, not only that Christ lives, but that I, and all who believe, all of us who have rubber wrist bands and tee shirts with WWJD and bumper stickers that say, “Honk if you love Jesus,” have a limited time on earth to proclaim and live the Way Jesus taught: Love one another, forgive, let go, don’t sweat the small stuff, cut each other some slack, share all that is good in you own life (even without a tax break), don’t give guns to, 5-year olds,  let somebody break in line, allow that other people want the same good stuff you want and cheer them as they reach to get it, get over the irritability and anxiety and get on with making the world safer and better... a kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Never, O God, let a soul be lost to you… you who loves all of us as children of your creation. Bunny eating grass in the front yard. Cardinal who sits on nest in the Acuba. Squirrel who comes closer and closer. Chipmunk who lives under the dining room. And a young Russian who sits tonight in a 10x10 cell. You are my kin in mysterious and convoluted ways... ways that I may not have designed, but ways I am given to live the best I know how. We will not be lost to God, none of us, the good, the bad, the ugly. That is Good News in my book. Amen.    

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