I suppose if we yelled at God more, we might yell at each other less.
The Book that we Christians are left with is full of faithful people yelling at God. This seems to indicate that God can take the heat.
So. Lord, in your mercy, hear our yell.
Following an evening of explosions in Ukraine, a livestream feed showed St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery in Kiev set against a brilliant blue sky. I wonder if God forgot that everyone’s lives were unraveling and accidentally left up the backdrop to The Truman Show.
My Lithuania-based in-laws and siblings are grieving alongside 176 Ukrainian students who attend their university.
I received a text from my spouse Katie today: “I am thinking a lot about how my whole life will be trying to enjoy things I know are disappearing.” I did not receive the full context, but the once-technicolored barrier reefs of Cayos Cochinos came selfishly to mind.
Another friend asked me if it’s ok not to feel deeply weighed down by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Her plate is full, and she is mostly worried about her student who isn’t sure he’ll have a meal tonight.
This reminds me to ask God why we suddenly care so much about the unhoused five thousand miles away when we don’t often care about the unhoused five miles away.
Perhaps we’re remembering, alongside South African anti-apartheid leader Allan Boesak, that “if human life is broken in South Africa or Indonesia or El Salvador, there is no way that life can be whole in the United States.”
Sunday I got up in front of two hundred people and welcomed them to worship. Many of them—of us—are likely also hanging on by three threads this week.
Church Historian and author Kate Bowler quotes a friend, Bishop Will, who once prayed a private prayer before he officiated the funeral of a small boy: “God, don’t you make me go out there and lie for you again.”
On Sunday, perhaps I should have added a question mark to my “God be with you.” And should I also ask the people to respond in the interrogative, “And also with you?”
I imagine Bishop Will did not truly mean what he said, at least in the theological sense. But it doesn’t hurt to give God a firm nudge every now and then.
God and I are on relatively good terms today, and I suppose that’s why I bring this all forward. The most bitter arguments are with the ones we love.
So, shall we yell together?
