As the Americans would say, I’m going to ‘level with you’, dear reader. Things are a tad overwhelming at this present moment. All about me, to my left and my right, are broken relationships, sin, doubt, fear and hurt. This ‘season’ (if you will pardon my Christian-ese) has been one that has made me cry more than once, ‘No more! It’s too much, Lord!’, the entangled forest of life can look impenetrable and just when I think I’m in the clear, it closes again. My own pain is mingled with that of some of my closest friends, and in all honesty, I feel like Frodo saying ‘I wish none of this had ever happened.’ My instinct to flee is strong, I often desire to simply close my ears and run, run to where I can find a shot of comfort.
But I know that this is cowardice. I know that somewhere beyond all this, the living God dwells, who is not merely comfort, but life and truth and he prepares a table for me deep in the dark among my enemies: fear, doubt, sloth and apathy. So I rage against the dark, and I will plod on, like Frodo and Sam through the wilderness, because there is something better beyond. There is a victory to be had and a feast to be tasted. I may not like the times that I am in, but that is not for me to decide, all that I have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to me. And like Solomon, I decide to fear God and keep his commandments, for all else is vanity and a chasing after wind.
That would be an Ecumenical matter. 