Piloting Faith: I'm not fine...
A Word for the Day...
Someone asked me yesterday how I was doing. Reactively, I said what I always say. "I'm fine!" I said with an emphasized cheeriness. "I'm fine." But then I paused. Am I fine? Really? Are any of us?
Nothing about this current moment in the world is fine. Projected unemployment hits 22% today. 32,868 people in the United States have died since this outbreak started. 667,225 people are known to be infected, but we don't have enough tests to know infection rates for sure. Our President is more interested in his television ratings than offering competent and collaborative leadership. Working parents are home with their children trying to be professionals in their fields while also being online teacher's aids on the side. A majority of people of color are working as our "essential employees" because they have no choice; they have to risk their lives or they don't eat. Our medical professionals are overworked and unprotected.
On a call yesterday, one of my colleagues said, "I'm not fine. I'm frustrated, neurotic and emotional." Amen! If I am honest, so am I.
I'm not fine. You're not fine. Nothing about this world right now is fine.
Maybe that is how it needs to be at this moment. I believe that we are being invited into a cultural awakening, one that may very well save our lives and our planet. But if that awakening is to take root at scale, we have to be brave enough to look straight into the painful reality of "What Is So." We can't sugarcoat the brokenness. We can't muffle the cries of need. We can't look past the genuine pain. We must see, sense and live it all - the racism, the inequality, the narcissism, the excess, the implicitness. We are on our collective journey of the "dark night of the soul." We mustn't rob ourselves of the lessons it can teach us, of the lessons we must learn for what comes next.
We are not fine...but we might be if we are strong enough to see our way through this together. Romans 15:13 says:
There’s the root of our ancestor Jesse,
breaking through the earth and growing tree tall,
Tall enough for everyone everywhere to see and take hope!
Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!
Here is the one thing that I know: God is with us. I don't know exactly what life will look like for us on the other side of this, but I know that Love is paving our way. I don't know what economic system awaits us, but I pray that Love will be it's underpinning. I don't know what jobs might be invented, but I pray that Love draws up our job descriptions.
Nothing is fine right now...but it will be, because God, the Great Love, is with us and in us. We will be ok in time. I know this within every cell of my being.
We are all in this together.
Rev. Cameron Trimble
Author of 60 Days of Faith: A Devotional
Prayer for the Week
For those sick and those who have died,
May we surround them with love and care.
God in your mercy, hear our prayers.
For those on the front lines risking their own safety in the service of others,
Protect them from harm.
God in your mercy, hear our prayers.
For those who love those on the front lines, who live in constant quarantine so that the family might be safe and still serve, may they know the gratitude of the hundreds they serve and save,
God in your mercy, hear our prayers.
For those who have no jobs and those who will yet still lose their jobs,
May we band together to offer support and resources.
God in your mercy, hear our prayers.
For those who already struggle to access healthcare, clean water and safe living conditions,
May we not forget them in crisis of the moment.
God in your mercy, hear our prayers.
For a world that is changing and emerging, let us be brave enough to create from this time a sustainable world that works for the common good for all.
Amen.
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