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