ARE WE LOSING OUR HEART?

     

I am having more and more conversations with people who are overwhelmed by what’s happening in our communities, country, world.  The News inundates us with repetitive stories of calamities from hurricanes and tornadoes, fires, floods, to mass murders, threats of WWIII.  Newscasters repeat and repeat the crazy tweets of an unhinged President who threatens those who disagree with him, insults war veterans and disabled people among others.  Meanwhile, Servicemen are killed in Niger, thousands of people are hungry and without water or electricity in Puerto Rico, deaths are rising.  We watch over and over again as our President insults football players for “taking a knee” during the Star Spangled Banner.  Meanwhile, he continued to laugh and joke with FOX News’ Sean Hannity while a Retreat Ceremony was happening at a military base.  It is too much.  Many are beginning to cry “uncle”. 

Many have stopped watching or reading the news, as the enemy of compassion shows itself in pity, both for the victims of the disasters and for themselves who feel like they are drowning in a flood that never ends.  “I can’t take it anymore.”  “There’s nothing I can do.”  I sense and hear people’s anxiety rising as their voices rise in volume or speed; anger and disgust in their tone.  And I’m concerned about myself and others who watch and listen, trying to feel empathic, but feeling more and more the dullness of indifference and aloofness that is the enemy of empathy.  As our minds and emotions are being overwhelmed, are we losing our heart?

Again it is a friend who has provided me with the inspiration for this blog.  I recently read her blog.  There were things in her blog that I understood completely, and there were solutions she’d reached that made me cry; some wounded me deeply and all made me think and reflect.  She often put into words what I have been struggling with and trying to express.  . 

            “Thoughts and prayers are what we say when we don’t know what to do

            and when we want to be seen as doing something.  They are what we say

            when we wash our hands and throw the troubles of others to the divine.” 

I have limited my TV viewing and newspaper reading.  I’ve limited my time on Facebook and don’t do twitter.  Yet I sometimes feel mired in helplessness and the guilt of not doing enough that competes with the question, but what can I do?   I agree with the first line of the above quote from Sarah's blog, but I disagree in part with the rest.  If our goal is to be seen as doing something, or if we are washing our hands of troubles and throwing them to the divine, we are not truly praying. 

Prayer as I’ve come to know it is action.  The only appropriate action at times may be heartfelt prayer as we go deep within to meet our Divine Center and join that Center with others around the universe.  We may pray for insight to see what we are to do, and pray for the strength and courage to do it.  Sometimes the answer to our prayer is to do nothing—to wait, to plan, to connect with others who have a workable plan.  Sometimes that is the action needed.  If I am truly praying actively, the strength and courage will build, with visions of where and what is needed to be done.  I will be awake and open to readings, to people, to appropriate actions that I might not have recognized without taking time for intentional listening for guidance.

My friend has been hurt by the institutional church, as have I also.  We have both grown through our experiences and reached seemingly different conclusions.  But have those conclusions been so different?  Near the end of her blog she says:

            “Thoughts are silent and impotent in themselves.  Prayers are,

            by my accounting, not actually feeding the hungry, clothing the

            naked, rebuilding Puerto Rico, or bringing back the life, health

            and hope of those who found themselves in an impromptu war

            zone instead of a concert.  Thoughts and prayers may comfort us

            when nothing else does, and that is indeed good.  But what thought

             and prayers alone cannot do is save the world from the harms

            humans wreak upon it.”

Those jobs are up to us as co-creators.  It’s up to us to create a society that screams ENOUGH with violence.  It’s up to us to push our representatives in government to act in ways that serve people, not greed.  It’s up to us to have hard conversations with those who regard any human as less.  It is up to us to work for justice in our homes, our home towns, our schools, our nation, and abroad.  It is up to us to demand that we feed the people of Puerto Rico, rebuild Houston, and Orlando..  It’s up to us to never let another Trayvon, Tamir, Philando be killed because of the color of his skin.  It is up to us to speak, to act, to act up, to act out, and to live fully what we think and for what we pray.  We are the thoughts and prayers of our world in action. 

My friend, has not lost her heart and we need heart.  We need the heart to hear and see, act and live in this world, however hurtful and dangerous it seems.  We need the heart that keeps our head up, not buried in the sand.  A heart that enables us to stand back and see what is happening and not just complain and pity and throw back insults, but to join with others on making our voices and our bodies count as we take our place in healing a soul-sick world.  We may not do big things, but small things add up.  Our voices matter whether it is speaking to a crowd or one-on-one with a neighbor or friend who regards anyone as less because of color, sexual orientation, disability, or nationality.  Our voices matter when we write to our congressmen and women, people in power in churches and businesses.  Our bodies matter when we show up at town meetings and other events for peace and justice. 

Do not lose heart.  We need yours and all the hearts we can get.