Living Inside Out

When you can’t control what’s happening

Challenge yourself to control

The way you respond to what’s happening.

That’s where the power is.

                                         Unknown

____________________________

Good things happen

Bad things happen

We wish it weren’t so

If we had our way there would be no tornadoes

ripping through the night

There would be no cancer

And Covid-19 would be a thing relegated to

A novel by Stephen King, or maybe Camus

But good things happen

And Bad things happen

People fall in love

Children are born

Joy wings it’s way through our lives

And then is gone

as harsher realities

are woven into the fabric of our days

the lost of a job

an illness

addiction

and even pandemics

we would like to think

that the reality

in whom we live and breathe, and have our being

would protect us from all of that

that if we love Sacred enough

live Sacred enough

pray to Sacred enough

all the power of the Universe

would be channeled to work in our favor

That God would intervene

And we would be spared

Alas

That does not seem to be how God works

We can’t send and extra gift to Paula White or Kenneth Copeland

And be spared

How many prayers have been sent

into the heavens

never to return?

And yet

We are not powerless

In the upper room, with the terror of the cross ahead

Jesus talked to his people

These were powerless people

Horrible things were unfolding, and there was nothing

Nothing, they could do

And yet he told them

Be not afraid

You have the Spirit

The comforter

Guide

Teacher

Helper

You have in you, planted, there,

at the center of who you are

everything you need

And if you stay connected to that truth

(I am the vine, you are the branches)

You will overcome

It is not so much that life will change

It is not that Pilate will become suddenly benign

Or that the Sanhedrin will magically remember whose they are

It is not that the brutality of Friday will go away

It simply that you will be powered from within

And you will have the capacity

To react differently

To live in hope rather than fear

To live generously rather meanly

To live with compassion rather than with protective apathy

To live forgiveness rather than retribution

To live love rather hate

Turn to God

Turn to me

Turn inside

Pray, pray, pray

But what will be changed

Is you

It took a while

It didn’t happen that night

It didn’t happen that Friday

It didn’t happen until Pentecost

But eventually they got it!

And the world changed

It didn’t become less terrible

Less fearful

But it the world changed

Because wandering around the world

were people

filled with, and open to

Sacred Presence

People who were not afraid

(OK, maybe a little)

But hoped anyway

Had joy, anyway

Were generous, anyway

Were kind, anyway

Were forgiving, anyway

And loved

Anyway

In this time

As it would be so easy to live in fear

We can be people who live in hope

We can be people who filled with God

Don’t hoard

Don’t isolate emotionally

Don’t sink into the darkness of depression

Don’t quit

We can be people who leave that package of toilet paper on the shelf

Who make that phone call to a friend

Who spread calm and hope

And who do what we can

For others

As Frederick Buechner says

“Here is the world, beautiful and terrible things will happen

 Don’t be afraid!”

Be love