(Phil 4:8) "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."
I'm just so struck by this at the moment. Sometimes the world and its violence and misery seems so hateful to me that I can hardly gather together the energy for the next breath. I'm so torn much of the time, feeling like a coward when I can't focus of the horrors of the war, for example. I know this text isn't advocating shutting your eyes and singing "la la la" at suffering, but it does seem to me that though there are those who do, and must do, the terrible, crucial, job of witnessing to this horror, it's okay to turn your head from the images if your heart holds them and you are turning your mind and your hands and your energy to the solutions, which MUST be true, honest, just, and pure.
I am too tired to say anything very interesting about this. But I can't cry "woe, woe" and be a good Christian. I cry "woe, woe" and then I just curl into an ossified little ball of misery that is no help to anyone.
It also has one million applications to my personal life. I already feel like a "bad quaker" sometimes because I haven't got an activist concern or even the slightest stirring of one. My concerns are much more homely. S'okay, though, I think.
Of The Best Stuff, but Cracked
2 comments:
We each must follow where we are led.
Some must plow the fields and turn up the soil, clear the rocks and others must lovingly plant the seeds, and others mill the grain, and others bake the bread -- churn the butter, others cut the loaves. If thee is called to be a baker that is complete, not only complete enough.
What I have seen of thee is so complete.
God doth not need either man's work or his own gifts: who best bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed and post o'er land and ocean without rest: they also serve who only stand and wait. (John Milton)
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