Dearly Beloved, Grace and Peace to you.
I want to pray in peace, to pray for justice in this world, but I think of the the brutalized, the enslaved, the run-over … and I am in rage. I think of the tortured and exploited and rage rises in me like a fire and consumes my prayer. It is my prayer. I do not feel peace. I feel rage at our evil. Heat, burning.
So I sit with it so the rage that is powerlessness burns away from the rage that is love, so that it doesn’t become mere anger, mere resentment, even hate. I let the rage burn in the consuming fire of the love of God, the burning bush that called Moses, the pillar of flame that led them to freedom, the lamp uncovered on the stand, the zeal that turned over tables, the fire of Pentecost that sent the martyrs out into the flames of their world.
Until the rage becomes light. Heat, yes, and light.
This candle has ben burning for a million years.
I will go with a broken heart, and with compassion, humility, and mercy. I will go with courage, I pray, with passion unfading. And in God’s grace I will go with rage.
Do not let me have too much peace, God. Do not let the fire go out.
Deep Blessings, Pastor Steve
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Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net