Thursday, February 15, 2018

Sitting with all of it

Today is the second day of Lent and I sit with all of it:
 - the blessings and the curses
 - the hope and the despair
 - the life and the death
 - the goodness and the corruption
 - the joy and the sorrow

I sit with the horror of another mass shooting, another school shooting.
I listened this morning to a reporter asking the school superintendent how he was going to lead through the coming days of 17 funerals and it just makes me weep.  I cannot imagine the long term effects of this shooting in the lives of the student,s teachers, parent, community.

And I ponder again the mystery of mental illness and the terrible isolation of so many lives.

I consider again this often violent, sexualized, dehumanizing culture that we live in and then I think about the frustrating, confounding topic of gun control.  I keep learning about the hold that the NRA has on the law makers who could make some changes in background checks and the availability of assault rifles.  And I think surely something can be done.  Surely.

And then I come back to the peace of my life.  I grieve at a distance and feel frustrated, powerless and angry.

This morning I read the daily scriptures and was struck by these verses from 1 John

 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.
 If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 
If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

And so I confess today - that I have often see evil and accepted it as I live in my own bubble and tell myself there is nothing I can do.
I confess today my indifference, complacency and sloth.

And will take a step today into action - not just thoughts, prayers and facebook posts.  Letters will be written and my congress people will be urged to do something to bring change.  And I am open to other actions that will be revealed to me in this journey.

This seems like a good step during Lent


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