Last Friday started in the perfect way. I spent a lovely and calm hour online with my friends from Maryland for our lectio group. I appreciate the way we touch base with each other, and I am so grateful for the unqualified support and love we share. In each of my different groups, re-establishing connections and re-affirming care and support is a vital function of what we do, especially in times of high stress.

               The winds of challenge and change are blowing high right now. As the world reacts to the shift in presidential administrations and the drastically different priorities of this administration, we are seeing both an increase in autocratic factions in other countries and an increase in reminding ourselves of the lessons we learned not even 100 years ago about fascism, autocracy, and what happens under the leadership of people who have decided that some people are not worth the life they’ve been given by God.

               In my lectio group and in conversations with you and others, I am hearing how hard it is to live in these times, to do everything we can to stand up, and to still feel helpless watching our government dismantled by people who not only don’t understand it, but who clearly haven’t thought about what’s next beyond it. States are not ready, nor do they have the funding, to handle all of these things being dropped or dismantled by the federal government. The noise from all corners is deafening, distracting, and defeating. There is good news, AND it is often drowned out by all of the rest.

               So our lectio reading really spoke to me. This poem by Jan Richardson was written long before now, but it applies so well to our current reality.

               PLEASE FIND A QUIET PLACE TO SIT, AND READ THIS POEM TO YOURSELF A FEW TIMES SO THAT YOU DRINK IT ALL IN.

              

Blessing in the Chaos by Jan Richardson

 

To all that is chaotic in you,

let there come silence.

 

Let there be a calming

of the clamoring,

a stilling of the voices that

have laid their claim on you,

that have made their home in you,

that go with you

even to the holy places

but will not let you rest,

will not let you

hear your life with wholeness

or feel the grace that fashioned you.

 

Let what distracts you cease.

Let what divides you cease.

Let there come an end

to what diminishes and demeans,

and let depart all that keeps you in its cage.

 

Let there be an opening

into the quiet that lies beneath the chaos,

where you find the peace

you did not think possible

and see what shimmers within the storm.

The storm is all around us, certainly, yet there are still things that shimmer! Those are the ones we need to recognize and hold on to. Above all, though, I think this poem invites us into a space where we let go of and show the door to so many things that distract and frustrate us. I guess this week’s message builds on last week’s message about patience, because part of what we all need is quiet time. Time to hear our own thoughts. Time to be ourselves. Time to spend with God.

I encourage you to print this poem and keep it by your spot at home where you can be quiet. Use it regularly and pray for that opening into the quiet where you can find peace. This kind of centering will help us all be steady sailors in this storm.

 

                                                                           Following true north with you,

                                                                           Pastor Kimberly