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Mountains melt like wax
I will make them one nation upon the land, in the mountains of Israel, and there shall be one prince for them all. – from Ezekiel 37
Breaking news alert. On Tuesday, Syrian children killed by sarin, lined up in a row. On Thursday, bombs launched from sea destroying Syrian airplanes. Friday, “a modest flight to safety in global financial markets.” And what will happen on Saturday? That’s today.
What do we want, one peace? For what price do we want this peace … one prince for us all? And who might that be?
J. R. R. Tolkien had no idea, but he knew, like we know, that we will do almost anything for peace. “One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them … in the land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.”
I read recently in a book subtitled “From Compulsion to Contemplation,” about a nearly necessary mistake we each make early in our lives. Here is what the author, Suzanne Zuercher, shared:
Yes, we will be like God, knowers of good and evil, people who divide and separate reality for themselves. This is liberating and responsible; but it is also deceptive, because God’s care for creation is not based on division but on unity and wholeness. God does not make judgments and their consequent boundaries about what exists. Rather, God looks upon everything as good. We are the ones with a fundamental and necessary error, a basic life commandment that ensures the formation of our individual selves. That basic mistake we make is to think we need to be walled off from others in order to survive.
Could I find a path to individuation without the walls? Of course! God made us to thrive, not to fall out in failure. God’s original blessing transcends our original sin. But no, we will not have it, as we learn from all around us how to live. Suzanne continues:
More boundaries exist now: good and bad, inner and outer, conscious and unconscious, light and dark, allowable and not allowable, spiritual and earthly. Our personal god is a god of judgment. We are alone in a world without One Who Cares, both outside ourselves and in our own hearts.
Suzanne, a Benedictine nun who lived in Chicago, is no longer with us. But she left us some wonderful books, and I am glad to know about them. Rather than settling for answers, she kept on asking really good questions. And mostly, I think I’d rather read her books instead of watching so much news.
Lord, you guard us like a shepherd guards her flock. Lord, you turn our mourning into joy. Lord, your consolation urges me to rise up singing, and the wines of your salvation inspire me to dance. You have scattered, and you will gather. You among us all, Lord. You amongst us all.
http://www.davesandel.net/category/lent-easter-devotions-2017/
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1594
