Religion

The Gospel presents us with a message that is hard to swallow and even harder to live.
We are told some folks wanted to see Jesus. Obviously, that request was more than a simple desire to view a celebrity. Some folks had decided they were ready to meet, greet and hopefully follow this man who was a renowned healer, a man who seemed not to mind being with undesirable people.

I don’t know about you, but I have heard the words “the truth will set you free” many times in my life. Most often they fall from the lips of my darling husband as he both encourages and challenges me to speak truth to power. He also adds, “but it may hurt you in the meantime, for a little while.”
That’s the part that puts fear into my heart. Who wants to hurt or be hurt? Who wants to feel the isolation and alienation that too often comes with speaking the truth? I surely don’t. I cringe at the possibility.

Perhaps it comes as a result of seeing “Damn Yankees.” Or, maybe it was the way I was moved by viewing “The Ghosts Of Mississippi” a few days later, but all I can see and hear in the Scriptures, especially during Lent, is “heart!”

If you are my age, and I suspect many are, you are familiar with the poignant song, “Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life.”
I remember the first time I heard it. A blind man was bent over the piano pouring his heart into the keys, it seemed. Surely, he felt the mystery of being sightless in a sighted society. It was obvious that he knew well the longing, seeking, striving, waiting, yearning. He understood the burning hopes, the joy and idle tears that fall.