Even in a pandemic
You can be kind
You can listen
You can learn
You can watch as the sun sets
Changing the colors of the sky
The light changing in the tree tops
Beauty can still take your breath away
Even in a pandemic
You can remember
You can give thanks
You can listen to the bird song
And wonder at the many voices
You can pray
You can vote
You can change
© Julie Clark 2020
When I was a young person coming back to faith in Jesus in the mid 70’s I was taught I had the answers to the questions of life. My experience as I traversed different parts of the world and met different kinds of people that this was not all together true. Yes, my young life had changed as I made following and learning about Jesus a priority, but I had a lot to learn from the people I met. Yes, I could offer prayers and encouragement from my perspective and I did see people encouraged, and even recovered from sickness. Yet, I learned to be quick to listen, slow to speak. Well, I had to be, because I was learning a new language! One of the many gifts of learning a new language. I also was learning and seeing beautiful things in the culture and people around me that I had not learned in my own culture. I learned to look for what good things God was already doing in a person’s life and in their culture. I learned to affirm those good things. Of course every culture has it’s light side and dark side, including my own. Now as I look back on those early years I think it was arrogant and naive to believe I had all the answers. Is it possible that Christians are hoarding Jesus? Saying and teaching that the way I interpret his life and teaching is the only way seems a bit narrow and exclusive. As if I know all the mysteries of Christ who died for the sin of the world, the very same who is reconciling all things, all people, all creation to himself. I do believe those points. I just don’t pretend to know what they mean exactly or how it will happen.
Here in the form of a poem are some reflections from Mark 9:38 – 41 John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me…”
Here, the path is wide
The door flung open
Us and them dismantled
Here, we celebrate
Our commonality – our humanity
See the goodness in each other
Here, the hoarding of Jesus
Is not allowed
Trust the outcome
To the one true judge
Of all motives, all character
Here we love and respect
We build up and affirm
The God given love
In one another
© Julie Clark 2020
When you need a new rhythm
Old one not working
Wearing you out
Step off, step out and away
Find a quiet place
A lonely place
To think
To listen
Make the changes
To save yourself
© 2020 Julie Clark
Do the hard work
Take the time to listen
To another
With a different voice
A different belief
A different color of skin
A different culture
A different story
Take the time to learn
Find your new teachers
You won’t be disappointed
You will be enlarged
You will expand
You will grow
You will receive
A true gift
© 2019 Julie Clark
Photo by Tookapic on Pexels.com
Waiting for the Wind
To move
To fill my sail or soul
To move me along the course
The path
The way
I should go
Sometimes
The stillness
Makes me nervous
No action
No hustle
No bustle
No moving here and there
Just an invitation
To be still
To wait
To listen
© 2018 Julie Clark
There is an ongoing battle occurring as I sit down to write this blog. It is over the death of a soldier and the response of the current President.
In our present, ever-changing, lightning speed culture we have pushed and squeezed death into a tidy box or urn, as far away from us as possible. We no longer know how to comfort those who mourn. As a people who have lifted the value of physical comfort high on our list of our God-given rights, death makes us very uncomfortable. We do not know what to do with it. Death takes too much of our valuable time. We no longer go to those who have lost a loved one and sit with them in silence or tears. We send cards or perhaps flowers. We rarely go to funerals or memorial services. When we do, the focus is often on celebrating the lives of the ones who have left us and leaving out the grief.
When confronted with grief we often don’t know what to say or do. If we speak we use clichés and platitudes. Instead of entering into the grief with our friend, neighbor or coworker we distance ourselves from the grief with phrases such as, “She died doing what she loved.” or “He knew what he signed up for when he joined the army”. These unthinking, unfeeling phrases roll off the tongue and put the blame on the person who just died, for their choice. I don’t need to be uncomfortable, it wasn’t my fault. These kinds of phrases do not help the grieving person.
Living in Central Asia with people who value the observation grief has helped me understand it. They do not leave relatives, neighbors, or friends alone with their grief, they enter into it together.
What helps a grieving person is to enter the grief with them and feel the pain they are going through. Silence is better than saying something that distances us from them. When someone acknowledges my pain with words like “I’m so sorry you lost your son”, they enter into my grief with me. When someone let’s me cry or even wail it makes my grief just a little bit more bearable. Often those grieving need to process with their words what they are feeling or talk about their loved one. If my goal is to listen and help bear their burden I can truly help instead of shoving their grief away.
Maybe one thing this president is doing is highlighting the unhealthy, even dangerous places in our society. We need to pay attention! Let’s take another look at our responses to death and grief, sexual abuse and harassment, racial injustices, greed, idolatry and poverty, to name a few.
I recently had an appointment with an eye doctor. I have Sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease. My pulmonologist asked me to get my eyes checked as it is common for this condition to be found in one’s eye. So I did. There was a small growth on my retina. The doctor said it looks like it’s been there a long time, but we should keep an eye on it. One of the symptoms of this growth is that I have a bigger blind spot in my left eye than in my right eye.
Blind spots. We all have them. We do not realise we have them until someone points something out to us that we missed, for instance my eye doctor showing me the big spot where I didn’t see the flashing dots on my exam.
This Sunday I enjoyed a a lovely church gathering that met in a home. It had all the elements that I love, good worshipful singing, an inspiring message, lots of fellowship and (good coffee), and at the end a time to pray with one another. Before we broke up for the prayer, the prayer leader mentioned an impression he had that there were those of us with eye troubles needing prayer. I remembered my growth creating a bigger than normal blind spot. The sister I was praying with also had something going on with one of her eyes that was causing blurry vision. We prayed for each other and then she mentioned that there were probably spiritual implications to our troubles as well. I filed that away, but not before I felt a little defensive, nothing came to mind, it can’t be about that, I thought to myself. Well, isn’t that what a blind spot is? We don’t see it.
On Saturday we heard Jim Wallis speak about “America’s Original Sin.” Last night we watched a documentary on Mohammad Ali. Now I’m not a fan of boxing and was a little resistant to it, but Bill nudged me a little bit and let me know it was not really about boxing. So I settled in and was gripped by the story of this man. Of course I had heard about him, he was famous, a champion! But I didn’t know the backstory how he had suffered as a black man against a world where white men called the shots and had caused so much pain and suffering for him, his people, his ancestors. I didn’t know why he converted to Islam and what that meant for him and so many others at the time.
This morning I woke up to my normal routine. Bill had made my coffee, I gathered my devotional books, a bible, my journal and as I sat down to have my devotions, my Great Prompter, my Great Reminder (The Holy Spirit) reminded me of my blind spot. Bill and I are grappling with what is going on in our nation at this time. Maybe white privilege is a big blind spot for a lot of us white folks. We get defensive, edgy when it is mentioned. We want to defend ourselves. It wasn’t me, my folks were mostly from the North, and not wealthy. What privilege?. We need reminding and we need our more enlightened friends and friends of color to help us see what we don’t see. We have benefited and we have benefits, that our brothers and sisters of color do not have, just because we are white.
I never had to have “the talk” with my sons or my daughter about what to do if you’re pulled over by the police. Please listen to this song, “Hands Up”, inbeded in this excellent article worth reading.
.https://sojo.net/articles/our-white-friends-empathy-not-enough
I didn’t even know about this until the last couple of years when so many videos circulated with black people (mostly men) being shot and killed at routine traffic stops. I had some previews though, when we were driving from Atlanta to Birmingham one summer afternoon not too long ago. I saw so many people being pulled over. They were all black, not one single white person on that short trip. What was this about? I wondered. I think it was a magnification of what has been going on all around the country, not just the south.
It takes a lot of effort to see what we do not see. We need help. We need friends and family members to tell us what we are missing. I have an extra big blind spot. What I see, I see fine with my glasses on. Yet, there are some things I do not see. I need others to tell me. I need to push down my defences and listen!
I appreciate my friends of color who have shared their stories with me. It helps me see more clearly what I would not normally see. I am making efforts to listen to podcasts, read books, and watch movies on this issue and discuss with others what I am learning. Jim Wallis reminded us of the words of Jesus: “You did it to me.” from (Matthew 25:40) With those words he reminded us this is not a political issue, but a theological issue. We have another opportunity upon us to move towards healing and reconciliation. I want to be a part of the movement to acknowledge and repent of the racism and the white supremacy that our nation was founded on. This is the road to healing.
On a day like today
When the sun comes out
After months of hiding
Behind low clouds and
Sheets of rain
You could believe anything
You can hope again
Hearts grown cold
Could thaw
Life could start fresh
Love could bloom
You could make new friends
Instead of enemies
Reach across walls and fences
Touch hands
Change could happen
People could listen
To one another
With compassion
They could share resources
They could take care of this earth
That has been home to us
For ages
We could choose a path of peace
Instead of war
On a day like this
© 2017 Julie Clark
When the seams of life unravel
When fog blurs vision
The way forward is obscured
When positions are hardened
Anger flares
Resolution and reconciliation
Seem millions of miles away
Remember
The greatest of all is love
It is the pulse that runs the universe
Slow down and listen
Feel it running through
Your veins
Ask the question –
What does love look like?
Give imagination free reign
Wait for your thoughts to form
Then get ready
Bring a friend, sister or brother
Go do that good
You are inspired to do.
© 2017 Julie Clark
Be Your Best
Be your best
Come alive
Breathe in life
Inspire me
With your love
With your courage
Be your best
Find a way
Show the way
I will follow
Be my best
Together we
Sow the seeds
Of love and courage
© 2017 Julie Clark
If I listen
I will hear a variety of
Chirps, tweets and caws
Outside my window
The motors become background
To the symphony
If I listen
If I look
I will see the flowers
In the trees
The vibrant colors
In the garments swishing by
The mouths turning into smiles
If I look
If I smell
I will catch the aroma
Of spices in the air
The curries being prepared
The jasmine and frangipani
Dominating the fragrance of the path
If I smell
If I taste
I will savor the fruit and yogurt
In the lassie
The spices in the biryani
The ginger in the strong
Milky tea
If I taste
If I touch
I will feel the texture
Of the rich colorful fabrics
The weight of the children
In my lap
The cool tiles on bare feet
If I touch
© 2016 Julie Clark
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