Questions Still Surface

2015 COVER

Psalm 118:1-4

Newsline reminds me that the Chibok girls are missing:
Still? Where could they be?
How hard can it be to find them?
Are they still alive? What are they doing to
them?

A child, who lives a few block away but “on the wrong side of the tracks”, is missing:
  How does that happen here? What are the police doing about it?

I watch my father hold my sleeping daughter on his chest:
Is that how he held me? How has she grown up so fast?

Then just as suddenly:
  Can I keep her safe?

An email arrives with a link about an unarmed black man has been hurt by the police:
  Again? Why?

My best friend’s husband has cancer. I haven’t heard from her in a while.
  Should I call her? Why can’t she live close enough to invite for dinner?
  Why did this happen to her?

It is 5:00:
  Already? What am I making for dinner? What is in the fridge?

As I cook, the radio describes an act of terrorism. It no longer seems to matter if this is one that happened two years ago or two hours ago. If it happened here or there.
  When will this ever end? Is peace even possible?

The Chibok girls are still missing:
  What am I supposed to do about it? Pray?

Suddenly I am impatient with the way that moments of joy, my personal peaceful happiness, eclipse the greater misery of the world. And just as angry that the world, with all its grief and violence, intrudes on my domestic calm. It seems impossible that my heart, that my faith, can hold both. It feels unfair, impossible that God is present in it all.

Question:
How can I worry about what’s for my dinner and worry about global hunger? Is there enough love in my heart, in my faith, to remember those who are hungry in my community? How do I make space for the daily joys and the daily sadness? How do I make space for my concerns and those of wider world?

Prayer:
God of Enduring, Everlasting Love,
Teach me to love as You love. Teach me steadfastness. Teach me what forever       means.
Teach me how to hold a peace that passes understanding.
Teach me to love continually, patiently, without judgment or fear.
Teach me faith. Teach me hope.
Teach me love.

Amen.

 ~ Gimbiya Kettering, Intercultural Ministries Director of the Church of the Brethren

The upcoming 2015 Intercultural Retreat All God’s People Say Amen, May 1-3 at Harrisburg First Church of the Brethren will explore how we interact at both the personal and national levels, exploring questions for our daily lives and for the wider body of faith. For more information and to register, please visit:
http://www.brethren.org/intercultural/godspeople2015/

Congregational Life Ministries of the Church of the Brethren is offering these simple prayers and questions in connection to this year’s Lent Devotional written by Craig H. Smith, district executive for the Atlantic Northeast District of the Church of the Brethren and ordained minister. (Available from Brethren Press in print and E-Book formats). Join us as we look and listen for the coming of the Word through the reading of scripture, Craig’s reflections, times of prayer, and conversations on this blog.