Just getting this written under the wire. It’s almost midnight on Saturday night, and church comes tomorrow with preacher Pastor Dan Carlson for Lutheran Social Services.
I think this Lent needs no other prompting to prayer, giving, and fasting than the events that are happening all around us.
News keeps coming in from Japan, about nuclear radiation,death tolls, and after shocks. We started lobbing missiles at Libya today. I have known for some time about the meaning of “pray unceasingly,” but it takes on a whole new dimension, when the prayer is intense intercession in a time of calamity. One of the prayers tomorrow, during the service will be Psalm 121, “I lift my eyes to the hills, from whence my help comes.” I’m curling up inside that Psalm right now.
Outside tonight, the moon is extra large, closer to the earth than it’s been in 18 years. I took the dog out late, for his walk. The first loon of spring called; its voice came wailing over the water, a lonely cry. Then another answered not far off. This earth is so beautiful, so fragile. Perhaps the shattering violence of earthquakes, and the sickening violence of war will finally teach us to stop, to live for peace, to work for it, each day, in relation to the earth, and to each other. Maybe the day will come when we look to the hills, and know that the world has become a shelter of kindness.