Turned Around

Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?  Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?”  Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

―The Gospel of Luke, Jesus Heals Ten Men With Leprosy

********

Dear Kate,

Headline today: "India bans shoes at teacher exams after 10 caught with Bluetooth devices in their flip flops."

Would you please read the news piece fully, and, dare I suggest, prayerfully, before reading the rest of my letter?  In fact I don't even care if you are not to read my words.  They are rather powerless.  What the Spirit is about to speak to you through this news piece, I pray, is going to sink to the bottom of your heart, sit there, and ferment itself into a call to repentance.

That's the call I heard: to turn around, to have a change of heart.

Life is growing unlivable, I've heard people said, more during this pandemic, yes, but more generally as people grow.  Natural as death, maybe.  Most unnatural though if we are to consider what is given us for our flourishing: the sun, the rain, the air we breathe, eyes to see, fingers to type.  The "universe" indeed "conspires in our favor," has our best interest in mind.

The "universe" if indeed has a mind, that mind is feeble we say.  So many things it hasn't thought of or is either not willing or unable to act on, that could have made things much better for us.  Nice touches here and there, we think, but not good enough, in the final analysis.  And we come up with our final analysis first thing in the morning, waking up with a sigh, sometimes a big Fuck You, to whatever or whoever we think deserves our fair analyzing, the "universe" most of all.

What is not good enough?  Well, nothing is good enough, ever.  In specific, vaccine is not good enough, not for me who deserve 100% certainty, the least we could accept from science, empirical in its truthfulness to the Empire of my Reason.  Approximation is a crime against my human dignity.  "You deserve better": how many commercials have this for tagline?  All of them.

How could people be so bad?  I wonder if that's what came to your mind when you first read the headline above.  Some 1.6 millions of them competing for 31,000 jobs, that's how.  Paying $8,000US for a pair of flip flops that flip-flops on them, that might also be it.  A country ravaged by the pandemic, maybe, with not enough vaccines, things uncertain we have too much of and letting rot?

In the story of the ten lepers healed by Jesus, only one returns to give praise to God, and who is that?  A Samaritan, an enemy to God, a bad person who cheats with his flip-flops.

Well, he turned around.

Yours, Alex