A Tiring and Wearisome Week

I am tired and weary today.   My fatigue has nothing to do with lack of sleep or the busyness of these days, but it has everything to do with what I see and hear in this week.  I am tired of turning on the news to see stories of people in masses  killed  or wounded by a shooter or a bomber for reasons known or unknown.  I am weary of  words of hate spewed from  mouths or on social media from leaders and common folk alike seeking to spread their values and agendas and chastising those who have other opinions.  I suffer fatigue from all the rancor, division, and hostility that seems everywhere I turn.  My heart grieves the  texts and phone calls I receive too often  from  persons being wounded by family members  and friends who cut deeply with their words and stifle the spirit of ones they say they love. 

Some of you may remember the book The Shoes of the Fisherman by Morris West or the movie of the same name starting Anthony Quinn.   I recall   a scene where the Pope seeks to escape the life of the papacy in Vatican City and get out in the real world.   He comes into a neighborhood where a person is dying and answers the plea for a priest.   The Pope in disguise is there as the person transitions from this world to the world to come.  After administering last rites for the deceased, the Pope lingers there until someone says to him:  “Come on, Father.  It is okay.   Dying is easy, for it is the living that gets us down.”  

A world filled with senseless death, hate, division, and the like gets me down and perhaps you.   Today, I am weary of it all.   In a world filled with hate, I yearn today for love.  In a world filled with division, I hope for unity.    And so today, I turn again  briefly away from the words of the news and social media to hear The Word where Jesus says,  “Beloved, let us love one another.”   In a world where the number of people going to Church seems to be growing less,  I yearn for Sunday to come to be with a people who, when they are at their best, serve and love as the body of Christ.   Amid  the chaos and confusion, I turn to and cling to what I believe and find rest to go on.    Have a joy-filled week.-   Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:    Lord and God,  help me as I live in this world to know that our help and hope is not found in this world but in you.   Change us, O  God, by your love; through Christ our Lord.  Amen.