Mother Nancy's Coffee Thoughts

Originally posted on August 4, 2019

Life in America feels dark to me. Voices and fists raised in hate and anger are the norm. Violence is a daily occurrence. Instinctually, I want to hide and just pretend it isn’t this way and wait to come out when it’s all “better”. When I do look at it all, I find myself turning the pain and sadness into anger and I don’t want to direct that anger at anyone because by nature, I’m conflict avoidant, so it just seethes inside me. And yet I know that none of this will help, that the atmosphere in our country won’t get any better if I don’t do something. Not that I think I have all the answers, I know I don’t, but that it is up to each and everyone of us to collectively to change things. We are in this together, we got here together and the only way to journey out of this dark place we are in is together with God’s help. What then shall we do?

Martin Luther King, Jr said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” If the answer to the violence in this world is love and compassion – and I definitely believe that is it – just how do we develop in ourselves the love and compassion this world needs? It takes God’s help and our intentional actions and it takes us responding as a community bound together in our love for God and each other. Let’s take our pain, anger, and fear and together with God’s help transform our reaction to the dangers and violence of this world into a loving response.

I hope these posts will help us all develop and grow our compassion, as we pray together, ponder and reflect together, develop and strengthen our spiritual practices together. I pray we all open our hearts and souls to the transformative power of God’s love, so we and the world are changed for the better. I pray that each of us finds a way to see the love that God has for us and every human being so that we can be the vessels of divine love in this world. If you have something you believe will help us all in this journey, please share it with me. Participate and comment and share with us what you are doing with what I post and how it is affecting you and the people around you.

Please join me on this journey of replacing the hate of this world with the love of God in all that we think, say, and do. We are in it together, relying on each other’s talents and strength to be one body. Each of us is needed and necessary. Each of us is loved unconditionally by the God who created us all. Each of us is an instrument of that love. Together, with God’s help, we can change the world from “the nightmare it often is to the dream that God intends” (The Right Reverend Micheal Curry). Won’t you please join me in this, loving, liberating, and live-giving work?

If you do choose to walk with the path of love with others through these posts, I ask you to please follow these guidelines: 1) Allow space for those who may not express themselves in the same way you do. 2) Resist the urge to place blame in any way. Let’s focus on how each of us can do better (and remember you can only change yourself and no one else). 3) Do not mention political parties in any way shape, form, or label. We are discussing a human heart and soul issue. 4) Above all else, be compassionate in your responses, after all, that is the purpose, to increase compassion in all of us.

Although it has taken over a year to bloom, the seed of this blog sprouted early on a Sunday morning, sitting in the dark in a hotel room in Dallas. I couldn’t sleep and needed to transform all the thoughts in my head into words on a page. As I opened the cover of my iPad and the usual news, email, and social media alerts vied for my attention, I caught sight of a headline about a shooting in Dayton, Ohio. There were 9 dead, 17 wounded by gunfire and a total of 27 injured in the attack.

I was in Dallas that weekend for an Enneagram boot camp lead by Suzanne Stabile – an event I’d been looking forward to for months. Studying the Enneagram has been life changing and life giving for me. My husband had come along with me and our daughter had driven up from San Antonio to hang out with us for the weekend. The day before, as the Saturday session of boot camp was ending, Joe Stabile had informed us of a shooting in El Paso in which 22 were killed and 24 injured.

Two mass shootings in 13 hours. 31 precious lives lost and so many others upended by violence and hate. I struggled to comprehend what was happening in our world. How could human life mean so little?

The theme for the Enneagram boot camp was “what then shall we do” and this question was spinning in my soul. The thread that began to emerge from the spinning was compassion. And this thread began to weave itself into words and I began not just to dump thoughts but craft a response to the hate and anger so prevalent in the world.

Suzanne talks a lot about doing what is ours to do. It’s a key component of the enneagram journey. I’ve always written about what’s in my head. I’ve never let others read what I write beyond what I prepare intentionally for my sermons and church newsletters. I’ve never believed I had anything to say of significance beyond the bounds of my parish.

The gift God gave me that morning, sitting in the dark crying silently and typing as quietly as possible as the words poured out like Niagara Falls, was the assurance and confidence that this is mine to do. I pray it is useful and helpful for you.

In Luke’s telling of the Gospel story, a group of people, after John the Baptizer has just preached to them that they cannot ride on the coattails of their ancestors but must live a life that reflects the loving compassion of our God, ask John, “What then should we do?” John replies with specifics of how they can reveal the God of love and compassion in all that they do, every moment of every day. (See Luke chapter 3.)

Revealing God’s love and compassion to the hurting and broken world is ours to do – all of us, you and me and God together, every moment of every day.

I have reposted here the writings that I’ve shared on Facebook over the past year, with the original posting dates. I invite you to read them as you have time. As I continue to post my writings here, I invite you to join in this conversational journey toward becoming more compassionate people following Jesus in the Kingdom of God.

God’s peace, my friends.

Mtr. Nancy+