There are days when the body feels too much the weight of the world’s anguish.  The cup of tears is full and the heart is saturated with concerns that only time and trusting can heal.  The harried world might tell us to busy ourselves, to push through, to let go. 

But deeper, much deeper, a voice invites us to stay still, to move in closer and pay attention.  We are wise to be present with our faces turned upward toward the pouring rain, and cup that which pours forth. We are privileged to grow sopping wet in the flood of concerns, to honor their purposes, and if we are patient enough, to witness their misty assent toward all that is holy, and gracious, and good.  

Our souls bear much that we might fully and truly love one another.

Perhaps this is all there is, and perhaps this is the primal reason to rest in what is.

This morning, I am fed up.  I am fed up with how much we wound each other.  I am fed up with “doing it
in the name of God” and walking away with blood on our hands.  I am fed up with stores the size of stadiums where we hoard all the items some people are literally dying to have.  I am fed up with the motto “better me than you” as well as the infamous “but for the grace of God there go I.”  So where is God?  God is not with the poor?  God is not with the unemployed?  The losers? The broken?  The abused?
 
I am fed up with using God’s name to our own glory and satisfaction.  I am fed up with all the lines drawn in the sand, the need to prove we are the best, the brightest, the wealthiest, the top of the heap, the chosen.  I am fed up with destruction that is so glorified and revered in what we call entertainment.  I am fed up with putting our children last on the “to-do” list and the fact that they are on a “to do” list.

I am fed up with manipulation and self-centeredness.  I am fed up with making others feel less, small, undeserving, and cheap.  I am fed up with empty noise that rattles our sensibilities as well as the continual current of insanity that soaks us with the drive to be perfect.  I am fed up with judgment, and yet… here I am…judging and feeling fed up.
 
And so, how can we meet at the lines and reach across in an embrace that is authentically loving?  How can we make peace with the very people who pluck at our values and fly in the face of our core beliefs?  How do we honor the soul of those whose actions we view as repulsive?
 
I’m working on this today.  It’s a big task.  I know I can’t do it by myself.   I hope you will join me… right where you are.