We must be prepared: A brief meditation for the living of these days
We must be prepared. Things are likely to get worse before they get better. We must listen to the news, from a variety of sources. But we must not draw our bearings from that news. Ours is a larger horizon.
We must be prepared to take emergency action, to go completely out of our comfort zones, in resisting the Powers-and-Principalities’ sway over current events.
In the meantime, however, we must not neglect our common duties:
• to care for those close, especially our young ones, in guiding them toward a life commitment to empathy, simultaneously brave and humble;
• to care for neighbors, for friends and acquaintances and co-workers;
• to be faithful in communities of faith, in whatever form that takes, to listen for and proclaim the Word’s invitation and direction;
• to building a culture of peace in the zip codes, the watersheds, the time zones, in which we live and with special attention to and advocacy for those who presently have no seat at the table of bounty;
• to risk the status we have been given in the world as is present on behalf of the world that is promised.
In light of these and an endless list of other similar commitment, we plead: Lord have mercy on our frail appeal; and grant what we need for the living of these days.
Ken Sehested, 17 July 2018