Pastoral Thought--October 12

I want to share with you a poem by Nigerian Poet, Ben Okri that I read this morning. The poem’s themes and structure necessitate a re-reading for many people. So I invite you to consider these words, and then perhaps, consider them again. We have the time today to do this—if we will make it. For although Ben does not reference God, or God’s mission directly, it is easy to find in this passage. For we know that we live in a world full of people drifting from one task to another, from one project to another, without stopping to consider God. 

As I spoke about yesterday, the anxieties of our days keeps our minds busy and full. Like you, my days fill up quickly. My calendar is full. But we have to make the room to consider how our days are oriented. Sadly, with full minds we have little room to consider the ministry of God that we are called to follow and share. And so, since we are not thinking about God and God’s work, we get busier and busier until we are over-burdened, or until we are so anxious that we feel alone and forsaken. To combat this tendency, I would like you to spend some time with Okri’s poem today. For it may just have the words you need to hear. 

He writes: 

What will we choose?

Will we allow ourselves to descend 

Into universal chaos and darkness? 

A world without hope, without wholeness

Without moorings, without light

Without possibilities for mental fight, 

A world breeding mass murderers

Energy vampires, serial killers. . . as normality? 

Or will we allow ourselves merely to drift

Into an era of more of the same

An era drained of significance, without shame,

Without wonder or excitement, 

An era boring and predictable. . . 

In which we drift along

Too bored and too passive to care

About what strange realties rear 

Their heads in our days and nights, 

Till we awake too late . . . Too late to do anything. . .

Mildly indifferent to storm and sunlight? 

We rise or fall by the choice we make

It all depends on the road we take

And the choice and the road each depend

On the light that we have . . . 

I think that you will agree with me that Okri’s words are strong. I hope that as you begin another week that you will choose a counter-cultural path. You will choose a path that places you in front of God’s people and calls you attend to God’s mission and ministry. 

Blessings

Rev. Derek