August 16

August 16
Don and I are on our way home from taking Matthew to Presbyterian College. It has been a very long day for both of us – physically and emotionally. Just as we crossed into Georgia, the sun set and I have to say, it was magnificent. Long strings of peach and pink, with beautiful white and gold clouds. And it has constantly changed over the last 30 minutes.
Because of the way my life works, I see a lot of sun rises. I see very few sun sets. And today, I needed this one.
In a sermon once, a preacher said that he asked his congregation where they found God. He was hoping for church. What he got was: the ocean, mountains, wild flowers, baby’s laughter, bubbles, sun rises and sun sets. After thinking this over, he said, well, that blows my sermon so let’s just sit together and pray. His congregants rate that service as one of the best he ever did.
My point is, when you are feeling rumply in your soul as I have been for the past little while – everything from Matthew leaving to working too much and too hard on my body to health crises in dear folk that I love and cherish – we need to find that beauty spot where we already intersect with God so that we can just sit and pray.
Now the gray clouds are here and I can quit being my distracted self and concentrate on the Scripture.
Psalm 34:11-22
Since I am writing this in the car, I can’t tell if I wrote this the last time we read this psalm but this is another of the ‘list’ poems.
“Whoever loves life” (well, isn’t that all of us? Actually, that was a euphemism for the followers of The Lord. This is in direct contrast to the other gods that David was surrounded by like Molech who is the god of death.
This definitely is distracted day.
The list is:
1. Keep your tongue from evil (don’t say mean things even if they are true. Words can wound.)
2. Don’t tell lies.
3. Turn away from evil doing and then actively seek out opportunities to do good
4. Seek peace.
Of the list, the most nebulous to me is number 4. Peace is not the absence of conflict nor is it ‘being nice’. What it is for me is far more ephemeral. And I don’t think that the returnees from Persian exiles would say they had peace either even though they ended up with their ‘ancestral lands’. Don’t forget, these lands had been farmed, herded and tended by the ones left behind for 80 plus years. Only to have the land ‘returned’ to the family of origin.
I am betting there were some pretty unpeaceable folk involved in that transaction same as there are in the Palestinian villages that the Israelis march into and take at Uzi-point today.
I think peace has more to do with fair deal and acknowledgement of rights and PROTECTION of rights. I am not naïve enough to think that it will all work out lovey-dovey but you stand a better chance than the ‘peace’ we have been participating in for the last century.