Broken for You

“It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.” 

― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

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Dear Kate,

So I asked you last night to question your assumptions.  Did you?  By sunrise this morning, how many have you questioned, and how much do you plan to do about them?

So that's the point right?

If I was in search of a point, that's because I trust we are all on the same quest.  We could and should help each other along the way, but at the end it is our own facing up to the call of being human.  I can't answer the quest(ions) that only you can ask yourself, the Word that is calling your very name.

Every morning when I crawl out of bed I imagine falling to my death.  Why not?  It is not "unprecedented" (a very abused adjective in our current linguistic repertoire to make sense of the senseless) to Homo Sapiens living on planet Earth.

Now if I am to tell you I am suffering from Parkinson's and falling to my death is a clear and present danger, and you could make one wish, say one prayer for me, what would it be?  What is the very best that you could speak to me, about me, for me?

If you wished me to be healed, I am thankful.  Very sensible of you, predictably so, like my gratitude, just as it is tepid.

But you've assumed.

You've assumed I am in a state of grace not as graceful as yours, you with your healthy body and very minimal chance to fall to your death crawling out of bed.  Secretly you might even see my falling as an unmitigated fall from grace.  You've pitied me, felt sorry for me, and couldn't imagine I would have anything useful or half cheerful to speak to you, do for you, bridge over on behalf of you to the Throne of Grace.

Well, if those were your assumptions and that's the only sensible "prayer" you could say for me, then I must say your speaking about me is as anti-Jesus and counter-Easter as it gets.

Have you ever considered all our "doing goods" to others during a difficult time, such as now in a pandemic, can really be a big distraction from the very basic human questions that we should engage in with ourselves and each other?  Who have been evasive and obscure in their answering to the call of the Word?  The ones who can't even question their own assumptions.  We say, God, we won't box you in, while pulling off the most irritating sound and smell of running a tape dispenser over Him.

Many have lost their jobs, some loved ones, others their grip at the end of their ropes.  Let them speak to our life.  Maybe they can save us.

Yours, Alex