Caldwell, in many ways, the world feels like even more of a hot mess than usual these days.
Covid numbers are rising again. Hope is on the decline again. Gun violence is rampant. Common decency is rare. Our politics divide us. Diagnoses are dreadful. Despair lurks at every turn. More and more people are in need of housing, food, medical care, and love – more so every day.
I don’t know about you, but I have a lot of questions about what’s happening in the world. Some of my questions start with “why?” Some start with “how long?” Then there are questions that start with “when will somebody do something about…?” and “why won’t anyone fix…?”
The questions I turn away from most quickly begin with, “So, Gail, what are you going to do about…?” And “Gail, when are you going to do something about…?”
Caldwell, do you have similar questions? How do your questions begin? What questions float through your mind during the daylight hours? What questions wake you up at night?
And tell me this, to whom are you addressing your questions? Who listens to you when you ask your questions?
You know that I’m going to suggest that you take your questions to God in prayer. Ask God all the questions you have, no matter how big or hard or small or trivial they seem. Tell God what’s on your mind and in your heart. Ask for wisdom, insight, discernment. Cry out with your anger and despair, your joys and your celebrations. Tell God that you are looking for answers – and also let God know that you’re ready and willing to be part of the solution… if you ARE willing to be part of the solution.
The Bible invites us to pray without ceasing. The best way I know to do that is to simply turn my thoughts, my often ceaseless, winding, convoluted, sometimes grateful, joyful, hopeful thoughts into prayer. On the rare occasions when I found myself praying and crying at the same time (hahahaha!), I remind God of the promise found in Psalm 56:8 to catch all my tears in a bottle. I try to make my every waking thought a prayer, even if it’s messy and raw, pouty and sad. And when I wake up in the middle of the night, I ask God, “Who should I be praying for now, in the middle of the night?” My thoughts don’t seem to cease very often, so why not offer my ceaseless thoughts as ceaseless prayers?
Anyway, once you emerge from your time of prayer, then you can go to the mirror and ask yourself – “Self, now that you have laid these things before God in prayer, what are you willing to do about these things? How are you going to use your voice and your influence and your hands to make a difference?”
I hope and pray that we are increasingly willing to be the change we want to see, to answer the questions we raise, and to work alongside one another to bring about the world of peace, grace, mercy, and hope that we all so desperately want to inhabit.
One way to be the answer for one Caldwell member’s current question – “how will I feed myself after surgery?” – is to sign up to take meals to Nan Walker. She is having knee replacement surgery this week and has asked for meals to be provided for her during her time of recovery. Click here to sign up.
Another way to get ready to be part of the solution, to be an answer to someone else’s prayers, is to keep your ears and eyes open to the circumstances, situations, and requests of other people in our Caldwell community, in your friend circle, with your work colleagues, and everyone whose path crosses yours, and then ask how you can help.
And finally, I invite you to share your questions with me. Email me at gailnhb@caldwellpresby.org. Put “I have a question” in the subject line and let me know about some of the questions you are wrestling with these days. I hope to address (notice, I didn’t say “answer”) some of your questions in sermons this summer, in blog posts, in conversation with you, and in the Sunday morning Bible study class that meets in the Upper Room (above the Shelby Room) at 9:45 am. NOTE – that Sunday school class won’t meet again until June 19th because I will be at the Montreat Youth Conference until then. If you choose to share any of your questions, I promise to pray over them and ponder them in the coming weeks.
Got questions, Caldwell? Keep offering them to the One Who Loves You Most Of All in your prayers. Keep asking them out loud – in the mirror, in our community of faith, and out in the larger world.
As Rainer Maria Rilke wrote in his Letters to A Young Poet a long time ago – Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”