may you feel the beating of the divine heart -
constant,
steady,
the pulse of Christ,
driving the life of the universe.
may you know his character and will,
blessing the righteous and unrighteous alike
lifegiving blood flowing to friend and enemy,
grace showered freely
to we who deserve it not.
and may your heart beat as his,
bringing life and assurance
to a world of chaos –
steady hope of life yet to come.
i was randomly watching the west wing today and saw a scene i’d never really taken the time to notice before. it occurs right after President Bartlet has been shot by a group called “West Virginia White Pride”. he’s talking to toby ziegler, a deputy who wants to crack down on extremist groups as a result of the shooting.
TOBY
Mr. President, I was thinking… I was thinking it might…BARTLET
You want to take a leave of absence.TOBY
I was thinking I might need some time off, yes sir.BARTLET
That’s no problem, Toby.TOBY
Okay.BARTLET
Not a problem at all.TOBY
Thank you, sir. [turns to leave]BARTLET
15 minutes. It’s time to get up off the mat, Toby.…
Bartlet puts on his glasses and roots around for a file and hands it to Toby.
TOBY
What’s this?BARTLET
Keyhole satellite photographs. It’s the headquarters for West Virginia White Pride headquarters. It’s a diner outside Blacksburg. Every night for the past 12 weeks, I’ve picked up the phone and called the Attorney General, fully prepared to say two words: “take ‘em.” And then I hang up the phone because I know it’ll be better tomorrow and better the day after that. We saw a lynching, Toby. That’s why it feels like this.TOBY
I’m not sure I’m going to come out of the other side of this.BARTLET
I’m not sure I can either. But until we are sure, I think we should keep coming into work every day.
it couples with what i’ve posted here before: we get better. it’s a wonderful trait of the human experience that we get better. day after day, we put the struggles of the past behind us. we learn to deal with what has happened, and look forward to what is ahead. we get better.
on the way back from dallas i stopped off on the side of the road and took some pictures. it’s amazing the amount of life that we drive by every day and never take the time to notice. here are just a few of the things i found in my 10 minutes on the side of the road…
full gallery available here.
as you depart into a thorny world
may your steps continue the journey of Christ.
may you serve with open hands and open hearts
loving recklessly those you encounter,
transforming them into the image of Christ.
MAy you feast at the table of the Lord,
nourished by his constant provision and blessing,
sustained by his hand.
And may you invite others to the banquet,
a simple beggar
sharing heaven’s bread.
May you daily live in the story of Christ,
your life a constant reflection of God’s glory,
your actions a constant extension of his hands.
May the Light of God, spoken into existence,
be continually around you,
shining into a dark and stormy world,
rays of hope to all you meet.
And may you embrace life,
certain of a beautiful end to your journey,
safe in the arms of the Author of Life.
we got to play around in the photography studio yesterday, which was pretty fun… some of the results:
tomorrow i hope to catch up on some of the old benedictions that i didn’t post at the end of the year.
blessings
I have a friend who thinks that we humans have some morbid fascination with death.
I tend to agree with her.
We participate in elaborate funerals. We gather our dead in large rolling cemeteries. We construct huge monuments and memorials to commemorate those who have gone before us. Time and time again we return to the memory of the past, dwelling on what was instead of focusing on what is.
How often do we do that with God?
Do we return time and time again to the tomb, remembering Jesus as he was, treating him like he’s still there?
“Why do you look for the living among the dead?
He is not here;
He has risen!”
If you were going to write a song about that, what would it say?
“There is a God. He is alive!”
Maybe someone should do that.
Sadly, I still think my friend is right. We sing songs like “I serve a risen Savior” and “Our God He is Alive!” but seem to act in so many ways like God does not exist at all. Perhaps the most foolish group of people in the world are those who claim to believe God exists, yet act as if he does not. Kreeft has a brilliant comment on the popularity of this position in his ethics class.
My hope is that we will give the death of Christ the proper reverence it deserves, but not too much – that it will become another part of the story of Christ – not the only part.