Uniting Community and Christ

Sometimes we are stuck and have to play the hand we are dealt. Not everyone does equally well in similar circumstance. Some people can handle wealth or power or success. Others become greedy, arrogant, and oppressive. Some people arise above adversity and injustices and make the most of their circumstances while others are defeated.

Although these two creatures are members of the same taxonomic family, they are quite different. Seemingly respectful of personal boundaries, they are hanging out but with no visible interaction with each other. The heron is intent on fishing for dinner, but the curious gull is paddling around the heron without disturbing it. One wonders if the gull admires or envy’s its odd looking, distant relative?

We have our battles. They may not be physical confrontations, but we know what it is to be threatened or overwhelmed and at the mercy of situations that may or may not be our fault but have escalated beyond our control. We have awakened with dread and misgivings-deflated and depressed by failures, tough circumstances, afflictions, hard and unwelcomed work stress, disappointments, betrayals, family turmoil, disrupted relationships, and losses that are irreparable. We have known desperation! And there was no rejoicing!

As earth and our personal coordinates slowly turn toward the rising, warming sun, each dawn’s light brings a sense of change and hope- a new day, a new year, or a new era. Visions, understandings, and directions change as different ideas, realizations, and expanded possibilities develop. Yet, there is something reassuringly constant, something “primal”, underlying the breath taking wonder and soul touching beauty of a new day’s dawn.

A recent poll of Americans found them to be exhausted and fearful and confused about the future. Sometimes it seems that “time” is filled with a jumbled, disconnected series of stories without a cohesive meaning.