Friday, July 24, 2015

A Day in the Life

I read the news again, oh boy….

Except this time the lucky man didn't make the grade and the English army wasn't fighting.

But a crowd of people are staring.  In Charleston…Chattanooga….Waller County, Texas…Lafayette, Louisiana.  It's a new day so just fill in the blank. A crowd of people staring.   In disbelief, in horror, in grief.  Faithful church goers; family of slain service men; the loved ones of Sandra Bland; people who just wanted to see a movie.

And other crowds of people are going on their merry way.  Ignoring the horror, not phased by fear.  At least so it seems.

Aren't we tired?  Tired of hearing the same story with different characters every day?  Aren't we tired of the rants, the hatefulness, the arrogance and righteousness we throw at each other?  These stones aimed at disagreeing parties behind the safety wall of our computer screens.  Because that'll show 'em.  That will make a difference.  That will prove that I am right and they are wrong.  That will teach them to shut up. And really...isn't that what it's all about anyway, teaching each other to shut up because we disagree?  It couldn't be about something more, could it?  Like - oh I don't know - another human being's life?  More human blood spilled due to…. fill-in-the-blank because it's all starting to blur together anyway.  More stories of love being denied because it's too offensive.  And all the while people are dying and children are crying out in the streets with nothing to eat and no one to read them a bedtime story.

All I hear is deafening silence about the stuff that really matters.  The kind of silence that remains complacent and ignores hard truths.  The kind of silence that prefers status quo over uncomfortable conversation.

God forbid that God's love would move any of us to change.  Even in the slightest bit.
God forbid that we will finally be so sick and tired of it all that we do the hard work of looking within.  What is (or isn't) going on within our own hearts that allows us to turn a blind eye to the devastation around us?

Would it be too hard?  Too time consuming?  Too inconvenient?

What will it take for our hearts, and the hearts of those in power, to break long enough before we really do something that matters?  Not just for ourselves, but for someone one else who is just trying to make ends meet, too.  Just trying to get by.  Just trying to be happy.  Just reaching for the "dream."

Last I checked the population was more than 1.

I read the news again, oh boy….

But "life gets in the way," we say after another sip of coffee.
And then another life has passed us by.


Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Praying for Enough.

Zoom in.  To the pen and paper.  The way the ink feels as it slides across the page.  Turning lines into letters.  Thoughts - abstract and uncertain - into words.  Words into sentences, careless about the sense they make.  The question is always what to write.  The weather.  The way the sky looks as the day begins.  The sounds of a house not yet awake.  A day just barely begun.  The list of things to-do today.   My body is tired and restless at the same time.  My heart longs for God.

Zoom in.  To the bucket dipping into the well of my soul, wondering if I have to lower it all that much to get anything.  I hope not.  I hope the water is further down.  I hope insight and creativity pool with it.

I hope there will always be enough.

There's that word again.  Enough.

I think there will.  Always be enough, that is.

If I look at the world - and not just my part of it.  Not just my corner.
Look beyond the scope of my eyes.  There's really a lot out there.  Given.  Provided.

If I think even longer at it, I realize that we had absolutely nothing to do with it.  With the way it got here or how it came to be.  Enough before my very eyes and beyond my very eyes.
All of our eyes.
Blue.  Green.  Brown.  Gray.  Darker Brown.  Steel.  Colors that mix together.

I had nothing to do with how enough got here.  But I have something to do with how it can continue to be enough.

My saddest days are when my green eyes see infinite as finite.  When enough expires.
It comes with confusion, chaos, insanity.  Everyone running around like headless chickens screaming, "mine!"

Then I think about the story of the loaves and fishes.  Every stomach filled.  Every heart full.  Every pair of eyes looked into and cared for.  And then - leftovers.

If that is the meaning of our existence, then we have some work to do.

Zoom out.  Look beyond my eyes.  There is enough.

Go and live as though you see it.