800 Words
Like many of you, I have three or four books on my bedside table that I am currently reading. Recently, I began to reread a wonderful work on vocation entitled, “Let Your Life Speak”, by Parker Palmer, who is a member of the Quaker tradition. I highly recommend it to you for each page is filled with wisdom and encouragement.
One such example. Parker writes, “Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic selfhood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be. As we do, we will not only find the joy that every human being seeks – we will also find our path of authentic service in the world. True vocation joins self and service, as Frederick Buechner asserts when he defines vocation as “the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deepest need.”
Parker went on to say: “Buechner’s definition starts with self and moves towards the needs of the world: it begins, wisely, where vocation begins – not in what the world needs (which is everything), but in the nature of the human self, in what brings the self joy, the deep joy of knowing that we are here on earth to be the gifts that God created.”
I have recently been reflecting about my vocation as a pastor and priest. That work is more than just providing excellent worship from Sunday to Sunday, or preaching the Word, or leading a weekly Bible Study. It is also about speaking truth to power. It is about compassion. It is about being a wounded healer. It is about being an active listener. It is about prayer.
Here in the States, the number of folks who have lost their lives to the virus doubled in one week. Twenty-one thousand persons had died a week ago today. This morning that number was just over 41,000 persons. That is quite overwhelming when you think about it.
Over the past couple of days, this virus, which is pummeling the world, has hit close to home – as a friend of mine lost her 88-year-old mom to the virus and could not be with her as she died. Two of my dear friends lost their jobs last week because of businesses struggling to stay afloat. My uncle Al, at the age of 96 and the patriarch of the Reynen clan, fell this week and has been hospitalized in Minnesota. His wife, Doris, cannot visit him because of hospital safety precautions concerning the virus. They have been married for 70 years. And while she was in fairly good spirits, she has been asking the family for prayers.
So, the world needs our prayers this day. We need to join in solidarity with one another and lift our voices to God. “To pray”, as Henri Nouwen once wrote, “is to walk in the full light of God, and to say simply, without holding back, ‘I am human, and you are God.’”
“When you pray, you not only discover yourself and God, but also your neighbor,” Nouwen penned. “For in prayer, you not only profess that people are people and God is God, but also, that your neighbor is your sister or brother living alongside you. For, the same conversion that brings you to the painful acknowledgement of our wounded human nature also brings you to the joyful recognition that you are not alone, but that being human means being together.”
I conclude with a prayer that has supported me over the years from the Book of Common Prayer in the Episcopal tradition. “Almighty God, we entrust all who are dear to us to your never-failing care and love, for this life and the life to come, knowing that you are doing for them better things than we can desire or pray for; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
God Bless you. God loves you. Be safe and be well.
