How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will
you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after
day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Psalm 13
"Open wide the door of your formless heart and allow
God to God in you."
Conor McCourt (Whispers from the
Sanctuary
___________________________________________
I have heard it said
that we have shapeless hearts
we are creatures unformed
ready to be shaped and molded
it matters, it seems
what we take into our souls
what we read
who we listen to
whom we trust
we cannot remain empty
for the world assails us
we sink deep into the depths and the pressure grows
as we watch the machinations of human creatures
who have lost their compassion
who have chosen the way of power and cruelty
we watch liars adored
the rich prosper, the poor suffer
we see evil people prosper
and good people die too young
we watch as the planet burns
and humans rain death and destruction on other humans
we watch children killed
We see the blood on the floor of American schools
The shattered bodies of Palestinian, Israeli, Ukrainian
children
It is all too much
empty we would implode
and so we seek to fill ourselves
we look for a savior
desperately seeking we consume whatever we think
will keep us powerful, wealthy, safe
and our shapeless hearts are shaped
by whatever we draw into ourselves
by whomever we choose to listen to, and follow
it is easy in our pain, our fear
to choose poorly
to seek power, or wealth
to choose the path of domination and control
to lust for retribution
so easy
and thus we let hate-filled leaders
fill us with hate
people caught up in greed, seduce us with promises of
wealth
people filled with resentment fill us with a desire to
hurt and punish
our shapeless hearts become hard
and we respond to pain by creating more pain
to violence by creating more violence
to hate by creating more hate
we drop bombs
send drones
close borders
shame and abandon the vulnerable
embrace racism
pursue power and wealth
This is why the wicked prosper
Open our hearts, O Beloved one
Open our shapeless hearts
And fill them with your presence
The world is a mess
The evil do prosper
Justice is a joke
Equity is a distant dream
Fearmongers on the right
Fearmongers on the left
And there we are in the middle
Crying out “How long!”
Shape our hearts O Lord
So that we may resist the world with love
So that in the midst of our lament, we may still love
So that as everything falls apart around us
We may still love
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