Dear friends,
It’s July 1, and I confess, I keep looking over my shoulder. It feels like the month of June this year contained so many ups and downs, contained multitudes, and it feels just the tiniest bit of a miracle that we made it out alive. We celebrated so many wonderful moments: graduating seniors and new leaders, a Lively Arts showcase and the welcoming of new members. The work of our Racial Justice Committee and Food 4 Kids and the 21 folks who went to Chicago through Youth United. But we’ve also seen our beloved friends and neighbors get COVID in record numbers, struggle economically, face longer than anticipated recoveries in the hospital, and reel in the wake of a number of dangerous and unprecedented Supreme Court decisions. We celebrated Pride and remembered Pulse; Juneteenth and Mother Immanuel.
All that! Just in June!
My activist friends remind me that it’s important to bask in the good times, to rest and remember that there is always reason to find joy in our lives together. We need it. Even God rested one day that first week, at least according to Genesis, they suggest.
That reminder from Genesis isn’t doing much for me, though. I mean, I am enjoying the pockets of beauty and moments of rest, but, especially for the last week, this country seems to be finally finishing the work of going off the rails. Jumping the shark. Surely, we should be keeping our eyes open in this moment; wouldn’t it be dangerous or irresponsible to turn away?
I have never been a chapter and verse bible reader (or quoter); I have instead joked over the years about how google has transformed my feeble powers of recall. Now I can have a word or phrase arise through my subconscious, and I can find its actual context. So as I thought of my experiences of June, some lines of biblical poetry broke through. The Lord neither slumbers nor sleeps. Google reminds me that this is Psalm 121. And the context is not what I was fearing; it is not an admonition to be ever vigilante, but rather a words of assurance. God, however known, keeps the watch. God neither slumbers nor sleeps, providing help and protection, when we need to rest. When we are vulnerable and in need.
As I read the Psalm I was taken somewhat aback by how comforted I felt. And make no mistake, the psalmist is not telling us to sleep the day away. But rather that when we need to rest, we are not left with defenses. We are not alone.
The work of standing up for justice, of riding the roller coaster of lament and celebration, this is our work, but it’s not a 40-hour a week gig, not a seasonal position. It is constant. It requires multiple shifts. Months and years. But none of us can be on round-the-clock. So, friends, if you’re feeling like I am these days, try to take a moment to remember when your shift begins and when it’s over, and feel assured that there will be someone — God, a neighbor, a fellow UCGer — who will take it up in your stead. From whence will our help come? Not from any single one of us along; but through the ways in which the Divine love shows up, unexpectedly and through the efforts of the whole lot of us.
Grace and Peace,
Bromleigh