Welcome

Primitive religion is not believed, it is danced!

Arthur Darby Nock

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Browning



Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Special Agents of God

Thoughts based on John 1

The sparkling Christian essayist Phyllis Theroux began one of her articles as follows:  Many years ago I took a Civil Service entrance exam that contained certain questions designed to sort out the people who had “Messiah complexes” or thought that J. Edgar Hoover was giving them varicose veins.  Those questions were easy to spot although the only one that still sticks in my mind is “Do you think you are a special agent of God?”  I paused, thought about all the government benefits which hug upon my answer.  I wrote “No”  I would like to think that under the same circumstances, Mr. Hoover might have lied too
_______________________________________________

We are special agents of God
We are called, and empowered… to see the chaos, and fight against it
To see the darkness and fight against it
To see hate and fear, and fight against them (Think John 1)

To see God, be God’s voice

But even as I say that I realize that it
doesn’t seem to be the way it really is.

I have a little trouble, most of the time
Seeing myself as a special agent of God

But that is because I sometimes make the mistake of believing that darkness and light
Cannot exist together

But they do
We do not become as God’s people, all light
The darkness is not totally dispelled, not even by sacred love

John in his Gospel says that the light shines in the darkness
That is where the light is most powerful, most intense
That is where the light makes a difference

So we cannot despair because we don’t become
Perfect
Because we make mistakes, and struggle
And even fail

We are always a crazy, blessed mixture of
Everything
Love, hate, hope, despair, darkness light

That will never change
The true miracle is not that we become perfect
but that what is good in us
what is great in us
what is love in us
what is divine in us

cannot be overcome
but can, and does
live
even in the darkness

We can see God
Receive God
Be empowered by God
When we are at our best

And, when we are at our worst

For it is God’s light
and the darkness cannot put it out

so shine my friends
shine!

No comments:

Post a Comment