We are living in tired times.
There is so much bad news we grow weary listening to them.
Today, I simply had to turn the radio off.
After all, it's the same news all over again -
there is no peace.
It would be good if intercepting ill was enough to solve our woes - then give us all a personal Iron Dome; but hurts and wounds come at us from so many places and ways....
And of course, it isn't enough in Israel's case, to intercept; it is necessary to root out the menace.
This is our way to seeking peace. Remove the problem point.
If it can be so easy.
As I get older, I seem more able to recall distant things, like songs I used to sing as a teen in church. O those songs, so many of them speak of enduring the earth and living as aliens longing for our true home.
When I was older, I was drawn to the higher energy, confident, even triumphalistic songs...but growing older does this: you learn there are no easy triumphs. Yes there are surprises, miracles and all about us is Grace-goodness; and they are the highlights and fireworks of an otherwise nearly unbearable existence.
But the Bible has already said it right there in the third chapter: we are broken in a broken world.
But - then - how do we not fall into the abyss of -
despair
fear
callous living
... how not to live small lives of 'minding our own business' when our calling card says:
Well, there is chapters 1-2 before we hit chapter 3.
Those first chapters are the seedbed of our longing. It was all made and declared good. It was lovingly attended to, hand-sculpted persons with a direct breath of life!
And even in chapter 3, there is tucked in that dark moment of God and man/woman parting, of a cord that is not permanently severed. There is a promise of a reversal, a redemption, a rescue.
We are broken; but not irretrievably so.
And yes, events about us and things that we see within our souls can darken the corridors of hope but the doorway to hope is already open and we need only walk resolutely on, singing the songs - like this one:
Gungor's Beautiful Things
and remembering this -
There is so much bad news we grow weary listening to them.
Today, I simply had to turn the radio off.
After all, it's the same news all over again -
there is no peace.
Ebola, we first knew it from that movie Outbreak, a distant thing we like to believe modern science has conquered. But today, three nations are staggering to contain it, while the rest of the world hopes no one travels with it.
MH17 is one of three plane crashes in two weeks. There have been war casualties before; but today, we can all know fairly quickly, and get mighty angry at how protracted conflict can spill over to innocent parties. It takes a clandestine effort to pry open the normal processes of retrieval and resolution.
Speaking of conflict, the bombs going off in Israel almost reverberate here. Those militarily inclined report and post videos of how the amazing Dome is working its magic to intercept missiles and protect...
It would be good if intercepting ill was enough to solve our woes - then give us all a personal Iron Dome; but hurts and wounds come at us from so many places and ways....
And of course, it isn't enough in Israel's case, to intercept; it is necessary to root out the menace.
This is our way to seeking peace. Remove the problem point.
If it can be so easy.
As I get older, I seem more able to recall distant things, like songs I used to sing as a teen in church. O those songs, so many of them speak of enduring the earth and living as aliens longing for our true home.
When I was older, I was drawn to the higher energy, confident, even triumphalistic songs...but growing older does this: you learn there are no easy triumphs. Yes there are surprises, miracles and all about us is Grace-goodness; and they are the highlights and fireworks of an otherwise nearly unbearable existence.
But the Bible has already said it right there in the third chapter: we are broken in a broken world.
But - then - how do we not fall into the abyss of -
despair
fear
callous living
... how not to live small lives of 'minding our own business' when our calling card says:
royal priest.citizen of a holy nation.owned by God.declarer of God's glory.rescued from darkness - for good
Well, there is chapters 1-2 before we hit chapter 3.
Those first chapters are the seedbed of our longing. It was all made and declared good. It was lovingly attended to, hand-sculpted persons with a direct breath of life!
And even in chapter 3, there is tucked in that dark moment of God and man/woman parting, of a cord that is not permanently severed. There is a promise of a reversal, a redemption, a rescue.
We are broken; but not irretrievably so.
And yes, events about us and things that we see within our souls can darken the corridors of hope but the doorway to hope is already open and we need only walk resolutely on, singing the songs - like this one:
Gungor's Beautiful Things
and remembering this -
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