Two hearts notice

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A whole civilization will die tonight

People will die

Lots of people will die

Women and children will die

 

Have died

Slaughtered in their homes, their schools

We can hear the cries of the mothers and fathers

From here

 

People will die

Homes will be destroyed

Cultures erased

 

Call it what it is

Genocide

 

Why?

So, our leaders say, we can make lots of money

So that the oil will flow

So we will feel big and strong

USA, USA (and Israel too)

 

It is not all Tomahawk missiles,

And air strikes

It is Zionist settlers with bulldozers

It is the IDF, responding to violence and arresting the victims

 

It is the incarcerated being beaten and raped

Immigrant families being torn apart

People disappeared, without due process

 

It is blockades dooming people to a slow death by starvation

It is infants dying in hospitals because there is no electricity

 

And it is not just in Iran, or Lebanon, or Cuba

Not just the Gaza or the West Bank

 

It is in Minneapolis

Washington DC

Texas

Florida

Idaho

Where the ideologically extreme right has decided

Trans people don’t deserve to exist

Women should be subjugated

Poor people should be ignored

The planet should be plundered for money

 

We should not be surprised that

 

So much evil flows from Empire

We watch it happen

Every single day

 

The lies, the violence

The hate mongering, the division

 

What do we do?

Cheer? (some do)

Pretend it isn’t happening (denial is real)

Become numb, and accept it all as normal?

The ramblings of a madman, the dishonesty, the cruelty, and the greed?

 

Do we reach the point where we no longer notice?

No longer let tragedy and atrocity both us?

Where we can simply ignore a powerful white male who brags

That he can grab “them” by their…  (well, you know)

 

Or, do we allow our hearts to break?

And do we let our broken hearts become broken-open hearts (Brian McLaren’s words)

 

Do we remember that God is love

That God cares for all who suffer,

Agonizes over all those in need,

 

And remember too

That we, as those who would follow GodWithUs

As those who experience GodInUs

Should also care

 

That we should be people of compassion.

 

We should look upon the world with eyes

That see

We should approach the world with broken-open hearts

 

Our compassion should be a bridge between

The compassion of God and the pain of the world

 

When we hear of children killed

Justice denied

Victims ignored

 

When we see violence, hunger, homelessness,

Illness, loneliness, despair

All the miseries of humankind

 

When we see someone suffering,

We should say

 

“Someone is suffering, and at least two hearts in the universe notice and refuse to turn away – God’s heart, and my own.”

This stops here!

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Any God who would wander into the human condition, any God who has this thirst to pursue us, had better not be too put off by pain, for that's the way we tend to treat our saviors. Any God who tries to love us had better be ready to die for it.

William Willimon

____________________________________________________________

Sometimes it seems

as if hate is going to win

as if all that is right

all that is good

is coming to an end

 

as on that Friday so long ago

when in the heat of the afternoon

jeers echoed

lashes fell

thorns pierced

hammer blows reverberated

and love took its last breath

 

or did it?

 

perhaps love is made of tougher stuff

perhaps

just perhaps

on that day

God looked in the face of hatred

and brutality

into the face of judgement and rejection

into the face of power and wealth

 

and said

“This Stops Here”

 

and that is why we call it

Good

 

Doomscrolling or hopequesting

Presbyterian Bloggers

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You’re not doomscrolling, you’re hopequesting. You need those tiny pieces of joy from seeing friends and strangers share their art, their good news, their wacky, unique selves. We need light to live. And we find it in each other.”

          Aaron Corwin

 

We thank You, our Creator, for all things bright and good:

The seedtime and the harvest, our life, our health, our food.

Accept the gifts we offer for all Your love imparts;

Accept what You most welcome: our humble, thankful hearts!

All good gifts around us are sent from heav’n above;

Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord for all His love.

          Matthias Claudius

 

__________________________________________

 

It all depends on what you look for.

True

There is a lot out there that is dark and evil

There are liars in high places

And people who worship money rather than God

 

But we still live on a planet that was God’s first act of incarnation

We still get to see what God is like in Jesus

We still get to experience God all the time

God is around us, with us, and in us.

 

We carry the Sacred

It is woven into our being

We are Sacred children

 

 God is waiting to be found everywhere,

In the darkest corners of our lives,

In the thoughts that wake us in the night

In the brilliant final blast of a sunset

In a random act of kindness

In that rare Facebook post that celebrates kindness

 

 

We find what we seek.

If we look for evil, we find it every time

If we look for what is good, it comes sneaking out of the mundane

 

In the simplest, lightest moments

in the little graces along the way.

 

God is there, he's waiting

in quite obvious and visible places,

wanting to be found

 

When we look for evil, we descend into the house of fear

And live amidst fear and hate

In a place of violence

 

When we look for good, we ascend into

That place where love dwells

And we are permeated with love

 

Transformed

Part of the ongoing incarnation

Of Sacred

 

Then, what we see,

What we think,

Will bear the fruit of gratitude

And hope

 

And seeing the world differently

Through the eyes of grace

We begin, at last

To reflect the divine image

In how we live and breathe and have our being

 

So the question remains.

What do we choose to look for

This day?