Prayer...

Dear God!

How could you let this happen? These poor folks are still grieving the loss of one daughter...and now they're about to lose the second one. Another dread disease. Another terrible diagnosis out of left field. What's going on here? Does it have to be this way? What are we supposed to be learning from this? What is it that you want from these people? Love? Faithfulness? Attention? I can tell you that at this moment you're going to be hard pressed to get any of the above...for they are angry, too, and hurt and confused and wondering why life has to be such a bitch.

And yes... part of this is about me. I'm supposed to be with them and I don't want to go there. Their pain is way too much for me. I'm supposed to know what to say, but I have no glib words...no powerful prayers to offer. Just my own anger at You and my own sense of helplessness.

So thanks a lot. Thanks for nothing! Maybe we'll talk later when I'm not so pissed.

Amen

Ek-Ballo

Sometimes struggling with the Sunday sermon can lead you into some pretty strange places...like an image of the Holy Spirit as a bouncer.

It sounds a little weird, but I'm pretty sure that's what Mark is saying. Jesus gets picked up by the scruff of the neck and tossed into the midst of the wilderness like a two-bit drunk trying to crash a swanky club. And there he lays...on curb of some kind of mean street with all its temptations and wild beasts and angels. Amazing: He comes out of the whole experience proclaiming the nearness of the Kingdom, as though life "out there" could be some kind of transformative experience.

Hmmm. Most of my life has been spent avoiding the wilderness. Maybe I've been wrong about that. Maybe life in the wilderness...life at the edges of civilization...even with all its chaos...is a place where we can learn what it truly means to be the Children of God. Sounds kind of risky.