Nibbles

In casual observations I see more people lost to snips found in the casual moments than to big, major, direct onslaughts.  It isn’t that significant onslaughts are not problematic, devastating, or life threatening, they are.  The difference rests in how we assume that we can survive the small stuff on our own while we turn to others and God when we are overwhelmed.  The difference in our response is understandable, yet it reflects the missing piece in our understanding of how Divinity can play an active role in who we are, what we do, and how we respond to what life offers.
 
As I read snips from history in the making, translated as newspapers, I find littered bodies because of weaknesses, exploitation, and lost bearings.  A soldier is overwhelmed in a moment of war and shoots someone who is not armed.  This reality has existed for centuries yet it appears as first time news.  The nibbles of life, nipping at one’s heels when your life is under threat can bring a response that cost innocent lives.  This account sits along side of yet another breach of relationship trust reported as part of someone’s “private life”.  It appears that nibbles occur in all shapes and sizes.  They may haunt you depending on how well you are liked within a circle of friends.
 
Why did these people lose their way, if only for an instant?  The simple answer rests in the community in which they kept their hearts.  When one is allowed to rest, be nurtured, and held accountable in a community driven by love, compassion, and mercy then there is a support network that lifts each toward Divinity.  Without this support network failure is a given. 
 
Jesus lived in such a community.  So when “Jesus was strolling in the Temple across Solomon's Porch.  The Jews, circling him, said, ‘How long are you going to keep us guessing?  If you're the Messiah, tell us straight out.’”  (John 10.23, 24)  He knew his response, course, and actions.  Jesus wasn’t unique.  Divinity offers us community and friends, life’s critical difference.