Cloudy WindowsCloudy Windows
My windows are covered with salt spray, especially those that look on the ocean. When I peer out, what I see is clouded and spotted, distorted by the deposits made in each tiny drop. My life is sometimes like that. I am distracted by tiny ‘things’ that leave their mark on my vision, distorting and marring the view. Each drop is so minute, and yet the accumulated distortion affects all that I see. Pettiness and resentment encrust my perspective, making me cross and depressed. Seeds of selfishness cause small changes in my view until I see only what is blurred and misshapen. How can I see your world clearly through windows that distort my vision and its clarity? I pray, O God, help me wash my spirit and scour away these distorting deposits. May I look through eyes that are clear and loving; may I see others as you see them. Please help me see through eyes washed with your water of love and forgiveness; help me see only as you see.
When I drive over the bridge to the mainland, I am reminded that island life makes it easy to see ourselves as separate, remote from the “mainland of humanity”. Sometimes it’s tempting to make the bridge an ideological divide and not a way of joining land to land. Forgive me my arrogance in thinking I can leave the world’s problems behind me, that I can escape to an island. We are all connected, if not by bridges, then by shared needs and demands. You have insisted that we love one another, no matter how disconnected we may seem. Please, Lord, help me stay connected with others so that I am never disconnected from you. I pray that you direct me not to hide behind bridges, but to maintain and reinforce them with the girders of your love.
I began my walk this morning when a neighbor waved to me. She is going through a very difficult time; she confessed that her life seems without value and meaning. As we walked and talked, I could feel her despair and pain. It would be wonderful to think my words or my company “cured” her, but I know that’s not the case. The causes of her difficulties, the problems themselves, still exist. However, I do believe that God can use a simple, random meeting for His good. What may seem random can be purposeful, intentional in God’s plan. In an email later that afternoon, my friend talked about our shared time. She walked on feeling less alone, feeling she had shared pain but experienced a healing, feeling God’s touch upon her, even during a quiet walk. Each of us is on a walk, O Lord, a walk that sometimes is slowed by pain, by grief, by doubts. Help us find your chosen companions on these walks, and help us to be just such a companion to others.
An eastern wind blew against my face as I walked on the beach today. My glasses quickly covered with salt spray and I couldn’t see the markers that usually determine the length of my walk. I was cold and huddled inside my jacket, trying to draw breath against the wind. And all the time I knew when I turned around and retraced my steps, that same wind would propel me home. What was once an adversary would become my propeller, making the walk easier and swifter. Thank you, God, for showing me that even in adversity I can take comfort in your presence. On the other side of every painful event there is the joy of your presence. May the crises of my life give me an opportunity to grown in faith and spirit. May I pass through hard times and emerge more swift and refreshed in my walk with you. Amen.
During this afternoon’s beach walk, I noticed footprints that attempted to crush each intact shell in their path. Remnants of shattered shells lay in the pattern this person had left behind. I wondered by someone would knowingly crush the whole shells, but then realized sometimes I do the same thing. I see people’s success or happiness and try to undercut it in my jealousy, resenting their achievements over mine. Why should they succeed, I wonder, when I have failed? Help me, Heavenly Father, to remember through Christ we are all one body. The success of my brothers or sisters is my success too; their share in my joy is equal. May I walk with you, Lord, careful not to crush the achievements and the happiness of others. May I tread alertly and lovingly all my days. Amen.
A new house is being built on the lot beside me. The men work and call to one another, play their loud music, and operate their noisy machines. I miss the peace and quiet I once knew, and feel cranky at the intrusion. Then I realize I share this world and this island. Perhaps in a similar fashion I sometimes I want you all to myself, so I alone have your attention and favor, so you and I are our own island. Forgive me. Help me to know that it is only in sharing you that your will is done. Help me to welcome others and make me less greedy for what is not mine alone. You are the God of all. Forgive me for trying to own you; make me an instrument to bring others to the knowledge of you. It is only in sharing you that I truly won your love. Amen.
Pope Francis recently shared this beautiful passage about how to live during Lent and beyond. When we think of things to give up during Lent, shouldn’t our negative behaviors be the first to go?
This passage appears in Celebrating Easter and Spring: An Anthology of Unitarian Universalist Readings, ed. by Carl Seaburg and Mark Harris (Anne Miniver Press, 2000).