As I take all this in, and as I read more articles about how "fixing" our national and state budgets will lead to big cuts in programs affecting those already hit hardest by this economy, I find myself resonating with this morning's psalmist.
Therefore my spirit faints within me;
my heart within me is appalled...
Answer me quickly, O LORD;
my spirit fails.
Do not hide your face from me,
or I shall be like those who go down to the Pit.
Sometimes I wonder where God is in all of this. Where is the God who other Psalms insist rescues the oppressed, executes justice against the wicked, and delivers the needy? Where was God as Troy Davis was killed last night? If Davis was truly innocent, my question only burns more. Where was God? Which recalls another death penalty case nearly 2000 years ago where an unjustly convicted man cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" quoting yet another Psalm.
I take some small comfort in Jesus' promise that God's blessing and favor are on those who "hunger and thirst for righteousness," who are pained by the injustices of the world and long for something better, but it is very small comfort. I do not feel much blessing from God this morning.
Answer me quickly, O LORD;
my spirit fails.
Answer me please, O God.
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Disciples of Christ, almost by definition, are bound to carry the weight of the world. Natural responses to your post, (like my initial one), are prone to be consoling (ex. Isa. 40:31). But shouldn't we all be appalled to the point of dis-consolation? Is it not so that most (in developed nations) have somehow become accustomed to the outrageous status quo, like the proverbial frog in near boiling water? Some of us wait, as does the psalmist in prayer, for God's answer. I believe that whether or not God's call and will is perceptible, it is always there at full volume. When it is NOT perceived or discerned by us, we're in good company; witness Christ's plea from the cross, and Mother Theresa's struggles with faith, living in her ghetto mission post.
ReplyDeleteBy way of consolation, (and speaking of Mother Theresa), I find it comforting that she herself found solace enough in Ken Keith's ersatz-biblical "Paradoxical Commandments" to post them in her orphanage, or so it was reported. Those verses I copy below, in one of several versions in print and online...
"People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies.
Be successful anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you.
Be honest and frank anyway.
If you spend years building something, someone may destroy it overnight.
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today people will often forget tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may just never be enough.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it’s all between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway."
-Kent M. Keith 1968, "The Paradoxical Commandments"
---A modified version (similar to the 'final analysis' version above), was found
posted in Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Calcutta and later attributed to her.