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



Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Gotta Believe

Sometimes it feels

as if the world has a “sickness unto death”

 

as if not only we individuals humans are terminal

but as if humanity as a whole

is toxic

and headed toward destruction

 

I am right there with Kierkegaard

for whom (as I understand it)

the sickness unto death was despair

an inability to be believe in love’s power

 

we do not, I think, really believe in love

we believe in a lot of things

but not love

 

we believe in guns

we believe that the more guns in the hands of more people

in more places will make the world safer

 

it won’t, of course

it will merely mean more shootings

more fear

more death

 

we believe in political power

we believe that might makes right

we believe in money

and that the person who dies with the most toys wins

 

but what we don’t believe in is love

somehow we don’t believe in valuing all people

we don’t believe in equity

we don’t believe in forgiveness

we don’t believe in generosity, or compassion, or kindness

 

we say we do

we blithely repeat in litany like fashion, “love wins’

 

but do we really believe it is true?

 

Sometimes it feels as we have a sickness unto death

 

but enter Jesus

who says to us, as he always says

“this is not a sickness unto death” (John 11:4)

 

but enter Jesus

who touches our despair

who gives us back our self

who reminds that death is merely a stop on the way to eternity

who grounds us in love

 

enter Jesus

who says, “believe”

believe in me

believe in love

believe that God will make all things new

 

enter Jesus who says faith is the antidote for despair

just a little faith

faith the size of a mustard seed

 

maybe it is time

to really believe in love


No comments:

Post a Comment