How do we respond?

How on Earth do we respond, when we are stunned and scared and overwhelmed, to the point of almost disbelieving?”  I wish there was an 800 number we could call to find out, so I could pass this along to my worried Sunday School kids. But no. Yet in the meantime, I know that we MUST respond. We must respond with a show of force equal to the violence and tragedies, with love force. Mercy force. Un-negotiated compassion force. Crazy care-giving to the poor and suffering, including ourselves [force]”

                                                                        Anne Lamott

_____________________________________________________

In times of trouble, we look for someone to rescue us

For someone to help us make sense of what does not compute.

Some look to people who promise

“many things, great things, the best things”

Many others look to God

“God is in control

God is in charge of every little thing

Everything happens for a reason

I don’t understand it

I may not like it

I may be scared, confused

Angry

Sad

Happy

Hopeful

Hopeless

But God is in control”

But is that the way God works?

Is God a helicopter parent who hovers over creation

(in the person of the Spirit),

protecting those who are in favor,

cursing (perhaps) those who are not in favor?

Is it true that not a sparrow falls to the ground without God being somehow in the event?

Is it true that the very hairs on our heads are numbered by the Divine?

It is comforting to think that God micromanages the universe in such a way.

Or is it true that God leaves much of it up to us (that pesky free will),

and for the most part lets things happen as they will.

After all the rain falls on the just and the unjust

And we certainly know that the wicked flourish

And good people are struck down, untimely

Not so comforting

Perhaps the true answer lies in a different equation

Perhaps the real truth is that God is in all the things that people do

simply because the Sacred is present in all people,

and Sacred Presence (Christians call it the Holy Spirit) is a life line

between ourselves and the Sacred,

creating the connection (remember the parable of the vine and the branches),

between ourselves and the source of life and love

And perhaps it is true that this connection

changes us, and empowers us, and guides us,

in such a way that we live a life that reflects the best wishes

of the Sacred for the world

So God is involved -- through us.

through our minds, our hearts, our souls, and yes,

our actions

not quite as comfortable perhaps,

not quite as secure as a blanket black and white, ‘God’s got this’

after all, we are talking about us

a bunch of cracked pots

but it reminds me, at least,

that I am connected to the Sacred

and even though it feels sometimes

as if I can do nothing,

I can do something

I can respond. “…respond with a show of force equal to the violence and tragedies, with love force. Mercy force. Un-negotiated compassion force. Crazy care-giving to the poor and suffering, including ourselves [force]”

may the Force be with us!