“When we think God is silent, God is just waiting for us to listen,” I told someone today.
Yet with all that’s going on, we still have to vocalize and rant, rather than listen to how we are at the same place again only because we are in desperate need of an answer that many of us won’t event take the time to hear.
I was hoping that my life would pass without have to live through another moment that felt like my gut was just cruelly yanked from my body. Some call it a sucker punch.
I’ve lived through thirteen presidents, the first one was Truman. There have been wars, assassinations, riots and significant emotional events that included losing both my parents, and thinking that there would not be a moment like 9/11 that would cement us and trigger an emotional leverage that would change everything.
Well here it is. I don’t think any moment in my lifetime has every linked so many generations together in time, not even WWII. And this week as we face our Pearl Harbor, the questions becomes what are we going to do?
School shootings, and mass shootings that were becoming almost so expected, it barely caused us to keep the TV station, or react on Facebook. But now, we are in the throes of something that makes us wonder is God listening.
I say without a doubt God is listening and what he’s hearing is a country and a world that has become so caught up with life, that the living have forgotten how to live as many of us never thought that we were ever going to die. As many of our leaders focus on the economy, this earthquake of human suffering has made us look at the picture we have been painting far too long as we have forgotten who we once were.
In the book “Anatomy of Peace,” a book I would encourage all you who are looking for a book to get you through this, the author addresses how people get to a point where we don’t look at each other as people but rather objects. The old commentary that I’m more than just a number has resonance as with the economic package is something what the old draft number as many wonder when is our number coming. And in the process totally forget we are more than a number. And when we become human again, maybe we will listen not only to God but each other.
What do those listening moments look like?
Those moments where we sat on the porch and watched our neighbors pass by; called someone we really wanted to talk to, not because we were stuck inside. Moments when we were not ashamed to say I’m sorry and mean it, or take the time to write a letter, lick the stamp and mail it.
There is no denying this is a once in a lifetime moment which has stopped us all globally; made many of us realize we are more alike than different. Sharing those moments makes us human and less likely to treat each other as objects.
So what am I suggesting? Share. Share your feelings without the fear of being vulnerable. Share. Don’t hoard toilet paper, buy some and give to someone, leave it on their doorstep without shame or care they might think it’s contaminated. We’ve been contaminated too long as we’ve insulated ourselves behind garage doors, gated communities and long distant commutes to visit family.
Take some time; an hour maybe. Turn off the TV set. Put down your phone and just experience who you are. You live only once, as I tell my students, YLOO. You’d be surprised what you might hear, and more particular what God might say to you. It’s Easter and my Lenten walk has brought me here to say…it’s sad it took something like this to get us to realize how precious life is. But it has. Be quiet, listen and remember, you are the change you want in this world.