“All nature is but art, unknown to thee; All chance, direction, which thou canst not see; All discord, harmony not understood; All partial evil, universal good: And, spite of pride in erring reason’s spite, One truth is clear, whatever is, is right” (Epilogue I)

(Alexander Pope. Essay on Man and Other Poems: By Alexander Pope – Illustrated (p. 16). Kindle Edition.)

“He (Lincoln) realized that the idea that God takes sides leads to narrowness and, at worst, bloodshed. It was important, in his view, for humans to believe in a Divine Being but equally important for them not to pretend to understand God’s purposes.” (David Reynolds, Abraham Lincoln in his Times, (p. 54), Kindle Edition)

Another life lesson that I have come to learn in my short life is this: the path we hope for and the path that is presented to us usually are not one and the same. For example, I had thought I might attend seminary back in 1991. In fact, I had started the paperwork to begin that journey. But then my life’s journey took a turn that rambled this way and that for nine years before I could come back to my seminary studies. Was this G-d’s plan for me? It was a question I struggled with for some time – until I realized that some of my most formidable life experiences happened in those nine years.

Abraham Lincoln once recited the above words from Pope’s poem An Essay On Man to a friend who asked him about his religious views. Lincoln recited these verses from memory, words that come at the very end of Epilogue I. Reynolds goes on to say about Lincoln: “The best one could do, he (Lincoln) realized, was to attempt to align good works with one’s sense of justice, without ever being assured that one knew God’s plan.”

We cannot always or ever completely know G-d’s ways, or G-d’s plans in our lives. All we can do is trust that G-d is in control, and then learn from the experiences we encounter. Every experience, every failure, every success, every pothole can be a lesson that will lead us down the path G-d always intended, realizing that whatever path we are on, is the right one. As Pope writes: “One truth is clear, whatever is, is right.”

Pastor Dave

“The painful thing is that when we buy into disapproval, we are practicing disapproval. When we buy into harshness, we are practicing harshness. The more we do it, the stronger these qualities become. How sad it is that we become so expert at causing harm to ourselves and others. The trick then is to practice gentleness and letting go. We can learn to meet whatever arises with curiosity and not make it such a big deal. Instead of struggling against the force of confusion, we could meet it and relax. When we do that, we gradually discover that clarity is always there.” (Pema Chodron. When Things Fall Apart (Shambhala Classics) (pp. 37-38). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.)

“And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. ²⁷ When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸ because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” ²⁹ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. ³⁰ At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” ³¹ “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

³² But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³ Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. ³⁴ He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” (Mark 5:25-34)

Desperation is a nasty word. No one likes to reach the point of desperation. I have shared and preached about the time during my college years when I was working with a camp who provided beach vacations for people with disabilities. One of the activities we took the vacationers on was a trip on the bay in a wooden motorboat. In the middle of my last trip, I ran out of gas. I was stuck in the middle of the bay, with the tide going out, equipped with one oar, and two passengers in my boat. Needless to say, I was in a desperate situation.

So I started to do desperate things. And when they all failed, and I felt as if all hope of getting quick help had evaporated, desperation set in. In the middle of those desperate thoughts, I said out loud “If only I had my wallet to buy some gas.” It was in that moment that one of my passengers reached into his swimming suit and pulled out his wallet – meaning we could buy some gas and make it back to shore.

Pema Chodron writes: “Instead of struggling against the force of confusion, we could meet it and relax.” My experience that day in the middle of the bay taught me a valuable lesson – it was when I sat down, relaxed and spoke my reality that help came in the most unexpected place.

When the woman with the bleeding disorder spoke her reality to Jesus, it was then that Jesus blessed her and released her from her suffering. Of course, life is not always this immediate or clean. But if we do not speak our concerns to G-d or even to family or friends, we often miss out on opportunities for help that may come from unexpected places or people. Sometimes we just need to relax, take a moment, and meet our struggles head on, trusting that already G-d knows our desperation.

Pastor Dave