Life is very harsh. Make a mistake? Everybody knows about it and enjoys a laugh at your expense. Are things going wrong? People take the time and effort to point out how easily you could have avoided the pitfall – meanwhile you lie on the street pleading for a little help. Relationships, hope, and opportunity are fragile gifts we hold onto with little confidence that they will remain. Disease, self destruction and thoughtless choices destroy our “self” as well as the people around us.
Everything is resting on a knife’s edge. Sympathy, compassion, and nurturing help are virtually absent in our world. Everyone seems to be saying the same thing, God included. “Too bad if you’re found running through the streets, naked and ashamed.” (Revelation 16.15)
I find myself looking for someone to be my mentor with an all encompassing nurturing engagement. I long for someone who would give me feedback when I ignore those who represent the most important relationships in my life. I imagine what it would be like to have a compassionate review of my efforts at the end and beginning of every day. I dream of a shared journey, of dialogue and conversation. What if? What would or could it be like? Does anyone else share my thirst and longing?
I see signs in others! Politicians are striking out when they should be listening and learning. Managers who continue to look for accountability in others while they are desperately run from it themselves. Parents are desperately seeking the affirmation that they missed as a child while the children under their care seek the same response from their parents.
The what-ifs turn and pause when I reflect on what is in your life and mine. Each has a guardian angel that travels every moment of the day with us. Each has a Spirit to knowledgeably and compassionately guide us in the present towards the future. Everything is there – for you and for me. The very things we seek are here. There is one question that remains. What if I said yes to God?
