December 1, 2007

Today is World AIDS Day - say a prayer for those infected with the virus and for those who love them. Get tested. Talk about it. Make a difference.

Last week I read Cormac McCarthy's The Road for my theology and trauma class. McCarthy is the author of the new movie "No Country For Old Men". The Road is a searing vision of a world devastated by an undefined event - enough that most people have died and all vegetation is gone, just ash. How can a father protect his son and move toward an unknown future in that setting?

Place that bleak story against the lecture by Desmond Tutu.

Not simply surviving apartheid, Tutu spoke out against the injustice, the violence. He helped church leaders to proclaim God's word in the midst of hatred and brutality. He could so easily have faced that time of suffering and become bitter, given up hope.

But his response was to remember God's call for forgiveness. As we forgive, we are also forgiven. As we work for justice and mercy, God's kingdom becomes present on earth, a step closer to as it is in heaven. So Tutu pushed not for retribution, but forgiveness and hope.

In the face of devastation, loss, and suffering - two responses. One with unrelenting questioning of God, with barely a glimmer of hope, with nothing growing, so little hope. The other with a grin and giggle and wonder in the goodness that exists in all humanity, proclaiming God's good creation over and over.

Most people face some kind of difficult situation - nothing as horrid as a nuclear wasteland, and few in the U.S. have experienced something like apartheid - but we all know something of fear, hopelessness or sadness. During the holiday season, there are those who smile in public, but cry in private, remembering those whom they have lost, suffering in silence.

Up here in the cold north, it gets dark by 4:30pm. There is a long cold night, every night. For some, the holidays are a long cold night. Cormac McCarthy and Desmond Tutu are two ways of seeing through the darkness, though there are a thousand ways in between.

Whatever the struggle, however you see the road ahead of you, I pray you know that God loves you very much. I pray that you reach out to someone on the road with you and share your journey, your story. You just might find a hand to hold as you walk.