Faith, Fear, Fridays with Robynn, God, Grace, Hope, Life, Life in general, Pain, Politics, Robynn, Social Commentary, Women, World
I have to admit I'm really struggling this week. I'm angry at some recent news from an organization close to my heart. I'm disgusted by the political situation in the country where I live. I'm horrified by the people that excuse sexual indecency and the language of predatory sexual assault. I'm embarrassed by those Christians in leadership that refuse to remove their blinders and truly see what's happening.
Meanwhile racial imbalance continues to effect communities across this country. More Syrians fleeing their ravaged homeland have died this week in trying to escape. Much of Haiti's infrastructure has been erased by fierce winds and waters. Over 800 people died in the wreckage. Thailand's beloved King has died leaving thousands mourning and in uncertain transition. Yemen is still reeling from the double bomb attack at a funeral last week which left 140 people dead and over 500 injured. The situation in Kashmir is heated and precarious. The Pakistani Christian woman Asia Bibi, once again on trail for blasphemy, has had her case adjourned for the time being with the threat of false accusation still hanging over her.
It's too much. Never before have I been so tempted to cancel everything, stay in my pajamas, and curl up in my bed for a few days. I'm heart sick and worn out from it all. I want to make friends with denial and ignorance. I'm done.
I was awake early this morning working on a different blog post. It was an angry rant full of passion and fury. As I was madly pounding at my keyboard I realized that the piece had taken on a life of it's own. The words were nearly typing themselves. Anger was colouring in ugly shades outside the lines of reason and wisdom. I pushed my chair away from my desk, poured myself another cup of coffee and paused.
Leanna Tankersley tucks into her very insightful book, Brazen: The Courage to Find the You That's Been Hiding, a chapter entitled, Welcoming It All. In it she includes the Welcome Prayer as written by Father Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk:
Welcome, welcome, welcome. I welcome everything that comes to me today because I know it's for my healing. I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations and conditions. I let go of my desire for power and control. I let go of my desire for affection, esteem, approval and pleasure. I let go of my desire for survival and security. I let go of my desire to change any situation, condition, person or myself. I open to the love and presence of God and God's action within. Amen.
Tankersley goes on to say, "I love these lines, this concept, this practice. The Welcoming Prayer takes us out of our heads and into a space where we stop, even for a very few minutes, our analyzing and figuring. We relinquish our strategies and allow God to work within us, in the place where we are far more malleable than our mind. We are opening ourselves up to a divine encounter which is never a bad idea." (Leanna Tankersley, Brazen, 2016. pg 200).
Admittedly it's a hard prayer to pray today. I don't want to "let go of my desire for power or control." I don't want to "let go of my desire to change any situation." I'm rattling at my chain for change and decency and solutions and justice. But, if I'm honest, the rattling isn't doing my soul any good. I'm worked up and out of shape. I'm a mess. I'd love to escape and avoid and hide.
Even as I sip my now lukewarm coffee, I think there might be a meaningful way to separate myself from the mess of it all. It strikes me that there's a profound difference between burying my head in the sand and lifting my eyes up to see above the muck. Both refuse to focus on the crud and horror of what's happening. But one gives me permission to welcome what God is doing. Looking up allows me to make eye contact with a broader perspective and with Hope itself! If I look up I see above the landscape, I see the horizon, wide and eternal, stretching beyond what I now know, making way for what's to come.
Perhaps today is a day to breath deeply: in and out. I need to remember what is true. I need to be faithful to what I cannot see. I need to call to mind the presence of Christ and the Living Hope that dwells in me. I need to make space inside to choose to welcome what God wants to do in me.
My husband Lowell often quotes from the novel, Brothers K, by David James Duncan. There's a scene in the novel where an old baseball coach is advising a young batter, "He said there are two ways for a hitter to get the pitch he wants. The simplest way is not to want any pitch in particular. But the best way, he said-which sounds almost the same, but is really very different-is to want the very pitch you're gonna get. Including the one you can handle. But also the one that's going to strike you out looking. And even the one that's maybe gonna bounce off your head."
Welcome, welcome, welcome. I welcome everything that comes to me today-even the pitch that's going to strike me out, even the one that's going to hit me in the head and knock me out - because I know weirdly enough it's for my healing. I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations and conditions-including trying to sort out the world's wounds. It's not easy but I'm going to try to let go of my desire for power and control. I let go of my desire for affection, esteem, approval and pleasure. I let go of my desire for survival and security. I let go of my desire to change any situation, condition, person or myself and the anger and angst I feel when I can't. Oh God please help me open to the love and presence of God and God's action within. Amen.