You can’t change the past
or control the future.
What is
is
what is.
Feel your anger.
Watch it rise up
and look for someone to blame.
Even if it is their fault
or yours or God’s,
it doesn’t change a thing.
You’re still here.
You still feel trapped,
like the bottom has fallen out of your world.
Notice how you go over what happened
again and again and again–
what went wrong,
what could have been done,
what you would do next time.
All this enlightenment
may prevent life from repeating itself
but it can’t undo this.
It takes time to
make peace with your helplessness.
But as you stay present there
you discover
it threatens but doesn’t kill
knocks down but can’t destroy
you.
Eventually you
feel a softening,
shift your weight
and find
a hidden strength
that enables you to thrive
right where you are
in the place you least expected
to see yourself
smiling.
We are afflicted in every way but not crushed,
perplexed but not driven to despair,
persecuted but not forsaken,
struck down but not destroyed,
always carrying around in the body the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.
–2 Corinthians 8-10 (NRSVUE)∗ ∗ ∗
“Go and make peace with your helplessness,” Alfred Bell told his son, Steve, who was distraught when his father’s cancer returned. As Steve grieved the death of his father, a song came to him that he sang for his audience at Como Lake United Church last Friday. It was good to hear Steve in person again and let the love mischief of his stories and music inspire love mischief in me.
What love mischief are you and God doing for the world?
Let me know and I will include it in an upcoming post.
An Everyday Pilgrim 
A very special post for me. I’ve read and reread it—and then read it to my husband. Such truth—not easy or painless, but hopeful. Thank you. Martha
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Thank you, Martha. That’s so good to hear.
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Lovely, Esther!
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Thanks so much, Deb.
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