Weavings is a monthly reflection that is the collective effort of the Wheaton Franciscan Covenant Companions and Sisters to provide spiritual nourishment that helps us feel God’s presence in daily living and invite an openness to God.
Arguments With Myself
by Dave Pfeifer, Covenant Companion
How long, Lord, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not save?
Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.
Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted.
Habakkuk 1:2 – 4
I really feel Habakkuk right now. What is going on?!? Is God asleep? Has God’s attention wandered? Or maybe God has just given up on the experiment of humanity? All around me, cruelty and arrogance give birth to suffering and destruction. My head spins, my heart aches. I do not understand how this can be.
And yet…
God says:
Can a woman forget her nursing child,
Or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these may forget,
Yet I will not forget you.
Isaiah 49:15
I think it is safe to say that God loves creation better and more deeply than I can even imagine and, my tendencies to the contrary not withstanding, God does not need me to serve as God’s coach.
Which leaves me with the question, what is mine to do in this moment in time? The best answer I have come up with so far is this: to continue to do the best I can to be a channel of God’s love and compassion to whomever God brings into my life in whatever situations God places me. With instant access to everything happening everywhere all the time, it is easy to get lost in feeling small, frightened, angry and powerless, but the global news cycle is not God’s preferred time or scale. God works healing, mercy, and compassion through individual human relationships and interactions and that is the scale at which God seeks to work through my life. As Micah says, “Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.”
Thank you. This is very meaningful for me and I am sure for others
What a powerfully beautiful reflection! Thanks, Dave, for this heart-felt sharing. It is a good way to start our Lenten season.
Thank you, Dave, for sharing your very honest, inspiring and challenging reflection!
Spot on, Dave!
Beautifully said. Thank you for sharing!
I appreciate your words and concur.
This reflection is full of power. It is the feeling of many and the wonder of what
we each can do. It is full of meaning , but so hard to complete . May God be our guide.
Dave, well said. To be, or not. To see, or not. To feel, or not. To do, or not. All these questions are familiar arguments we have with ourselves. Sometimes all we have to hold on to is the fact that out of God we cannot fall and who, in companioning us, willingly suffers all with us.