Lord have mercy.
Have
mercy on me, my God, as I wake this morning with such bitterness in my
heart as I have rarely felt: bitterness toward my fellow palefaces, the
majority of whom look to be lurching toward turning our country into a
land of Judases, each of whom might well horrify the original with their
treachery. ‘The brave’ are a decreasing number among us and too many,
when they return here, wind up a shameful on-the-street testimony as to
how this majority-coward nation treats the few brave among us!
Most of us appear to be cowards who don’t even want to imagine lives different in some really important ways: less filled with ‘stuff’ and more filled with nurturing relationships with one another, animals and, yes, whole ecosystems as well. Economic systems that put back into the earth at least as much as they extract. Indeed, too many of my fellow aging male palefaces seem to feel their manhood depends on maintaining and even on doubling down on destructively extractive ways with the earth’s resources.
Jesus, I believe you forgave even Judas, for wasn’t he also one who ‘knew not what he did’ until it was too late? Do I then need to forgive today’s Judases who seek to betray our country and our planet on the same ground? And yes, I do remember that forgiveness is as much for the forgiver as for the forgiven.
Most of us appear to be cowards who don’t even want to imagine lives different in some really important ways: less filled with ‘stuff’ and more filled with nurturing relationships with one another, animals and, yes, whole ecosystems as well. Economic systems that put back into the earth at least as much as they extract. Indeed, too many of my fellow aging male palefaces seem to feel their manhood depends on maintaining and even on doubling down on destructively extractive ways with the earth’s resources.
Jesus, I believe you forgave even Judas, for wasn’t he also one who ‘knew not what he did’ until it was too late? Do I then need to forgive today’s Judases who seek to betray our country and our planet on the same ground? And yes, I do remember that forgiveness is as much for the forgiver as for the forgiven.
Christ have mercy.
A
majority of this country, Father, still calls itself ‘Christian’. Too
many of them act like anything but. They’re interested not in Your
Gospel, not in living and sharing it. They want worldly wealth and
power, and to get it they use Your holy Name as a stalking-horse. Listen
to them! Such routine violations of Your Third Commandment are part of
their stock-in-trade, not to mention the same of Your Ninth Commandment!
They delight not in mercy but in cruelty!
They are your enemies, Father! Arise and scatter them into the wind!!
But such crimes are by no means peculiar to Christendom. Islam has more than one saying which urges the hearers to look behind outward ‘signs’ of piety such as long beards, shawls and phylacteries, a bumped forehead or, indeed, a niqab or hijab.
I think I need to read Jon Meacham’s recently published book about how he sees real religion making a comeback and regenerating our country. I literally pray that it may be so. Jesus, guide us, even if it be into fashioning cats-o’ nine and driving the profaners and their money-changing enablers from Your House!
Trouble is, that way’s too easy. Much more sure (of a connection with You, I mean) will be the non-violent action of masses of us. To do this, we shall need massive amounts of courage. Plant in each of us all we’ll need in this; help us remember that courage is never the absence of fear but the transcending of it!
They are your enemies, Father! Arise and scatter them into the wind!!
But such crimes are by no means peculiar to Christendom. Islam has more than one saying which urges the hearers to look behind outward ‘signs’ of piety such as long beards, shawls and phylacteries, a bumped forehead or, indeed, a niqab or hijab.
I think I need to read Jon Meacham’s recently published book about how he sees real religion making a comeback and regenerating our country. I literally pray that it may be so. Jesus, guide us, even if it be into fashioning cats-o’ nine and driving the profaners and their money-changing enablers from Your House!
Trouble is, that way’s too easy. Much more sure (of a connection with You, I mean) will be the non-violent action of masses of us. To do this, we shall need massive amounts of courage. Plant in each of us all we’ll need in this; help us remember that courage is never the absence of fear but the transcending of it!
Lord, have mercy.
I
guess domestic pets are not the only ones who need to adjust a bit when
we ‘spring forward’; I got up this morning (after returning to bed
after giving the dogs their first outing and breakfast) at 9:04 Central
Daylight Time!
Glad I woke up then as I was in the middle of yet another nightmare which I have now, thankfully, forgotten.
As the Rascals once sang, it’s a beautiful morning. The sky is a pastel blue dappled with thin white clouds and the doggies are very happy to be outside. The puppy, who we’ve named Bonita, actually ‘goes’ outside. She is still only partly toilet-trained and I’m glad to see signs it might be working.
Later, as I shower, I pray. I discuss my feelings with God. I feel the need to express these feelings, but in a way consonant with what I understand to be real manhood. That is to say, expressing them, not stifling or sublimating them, but also carefully patrolling my expression for any whiff of self-pity and being ‘merciless’ in so doing.
Thank you, Father, for such reminders of your mercy as pretty, quiet mornings and happy puppies. Not to mention that our house is still standing after a tornado, and probably an F4 at that, ripped through Nashville (which is 95 miles to our west) and screamed east as far as Cookeville which is about thirty miles to our west. Monday night a week ago, we and the dogs spent about forty minutes in the basement after the weather radio urged us to ‘take cover NOW’. Like millions before me and (I hope) after me, it’s the everyday, small things — including prayer and contributions for the tornado’s victims — which can bring me back to You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Especially when the bigger picture looks as bleak as it can too easily these days.
I’ve heard more than one person say, God is not in the tornado but in our, and our neighbors’, response to it. Amen and amen, say I.
Glad I woke up then as I was in the middle of yet another nightmare which I have now, thankfully, forgotten.
As the Rascals once sang, it’s a beautiful morning. The sky is a pastel blue dappled with thin white clouds and the doggies are very happy to be outside. The puppy, who we’ve named Bonita, actually ‘goes’ outside. She is still only partly toilet-trained and I’m glad to see signs it might be working.
Later, as I shower, I pray. I discuss my feelings with God. I feel the need to express these feelings, but in a way consonant with what I understand to be real manhood. That is to say, expressing them, not stifling or sublimating them, but also carefully patrolling my expression for any whiff of self-pity and being ‘merciless’ in so doing.
Thank you, Father, for such reminders of your mercy as pretty, quiet mornings and happy puppies. Not to mention that our house is still standing after a tornado, and probably an F4 at that, ripped through Nashville (which is 95 miles to our west) and screamed east as far as Cookeville which is about thirty miles to our west. Monday night a week ago, we and the dogs spent about forty minutes in the basement after the weather radio urged us to ‘take cover NOW’. Like millions before me and (I hope) after me, it’s the everyday, small things — including prayer and contributions for the tornado’s victims — which can bring me back to You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Especially when the bigger picture looks as bleak as it can too easily these days.
I’ve heard more than one person say, God is not in the tornado but in our, and our neighbors’, response to it. Amen and amen, say I.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
