On Mending the World in Silence - Mercy Aiken

There are too many issues to comment on, too many terrible and wonderful things happening, too many bombs hitting and religious-ethnic sequestering and divisions everywhere and little-known abuses that some government somewhere is doing to some minority group, too many books to read, too many brilliant thoughts that other people have thought and layers of knowledge and understanding that entice me and sometimes freeze me up altogether.

It wears me out. It strips all words from my tongue and I find I have nothing to say, nothing to add to the cacophony, except maybe the precious addition of silence.

I jump into the news-noise for a moment, but only a moment. Then I must send it all away with my own breath, like smoke is blown away before the breath of the Lord and sit in my own quietude (a precious gift) and do old-fashioned, small-world things like run my fingers over the smooth skin of a Madrona tree and observe the squawking gulls and the ships at sea and the feeling of sand between my toes and the burning of the Holy Spirit in my heart.

It is said that the whole world is carried inside the heart of an intercessor/saint/prophet/priest and as they carry it inside them it is mended and healed. In this way, the world is yet held together. There are people right now who are praying for us all – from desert monasteries and other places of worship and sickbeds and living rooms and jail cells and on their knees on ratty old rugs by their bedside -- bathing all of us in Christ, entreating mercy upon the poor and the great alike. Entreating mercy upon the children of this world. Upon the animals, even, and every green thing. Upon the halls of petty power that choke the Spirit. Upon the world’s myriad winding graffiti alleyways where nothing grows except the greenness of children kicking an old ball. (Because it is true that God shares His own work with us, His image-bearers).

And I can’t think of anything more worthwhile for my short life than to close my mouth for a while and open my heart towards whatever He would hold inside of it as He rests within me, the whole world in His hands.

Comments

[Dave DeGroot]

Your comments about shutting off news-noise and finding solitude in the Lord are so appreciated. As I get older, I also feel the need to intercede for mercy upon the weak and powerless - yes, including hard-pressed wild animals and even every green thing. Than you for this meditation. - Dave DeGroot, Tucson, AZ