Sarah at Serendipity asks for thoughts on the passage in Matthew about not worrying. This passage was spoken to me today during a Spiritual Direction group and it blessed me with a moment of hope, of peace. Sarah asks about the paradox of our situation: we want to, and strive to, believe in the wonderful [yet ridiculous] promises of God, yet every morning on the news, on the web, in our lives, as we drive to work or walk to school, or call home, talk to a friend — we realize we are living in a world where promises have been broken – a world where hurt, and pain and brokenness run rampant, and we are left standing alone, feeling lost and asking God, "What? What was that?" This is an excerpt from her entry:
On the one hand, I like these crazy sayings. I like the ridiculous promises. This world can seem so twisted and so broken and so gray that I like this alternative view of reality. It’s part of why I want to call myself Christian. I want to have faith in the crazy things, in the miracles, and in the no-way-possibilities. I want to see beauty and hope where other people see only brokenness and stagnation. And I want to point out the beauty and hope to others when they get lost.
On the other hand, I get really stuck. I have to get up everyday and face the fact that my life doesn’t look like I thought it would because promises were broken; and I can’t control the future and I have to go to classes where I haven’t finished the reading and I can’t figure what we’re learning or why it’s important. And I have to leave this picturesque campus and see homeless mothers dropping off children at Our House in order to go once again to a job that doesn’t pay enough for them to provide for their children, and I see people standing in the rain waiting for a bus when at 24 I have my own car, and people sleeping on stairs downtown and women living in shelters because life just doesn’t always cooperate with these promises.
Read the whole post here, post some thoughts, and give her some thoughts for her sermon next week…