DISASTER

What irony for us to go through a shakeup with the recent earthquake and to see three days later the most hideous imaginable collapse in Haiti. The way neighbors checked in on each other here is multiplied in thousands there. More than that, it’s multiplied in millions in the way the whole world responds to crises like this one.

Even here, we began a discussion immediately as to whether we should reroute our Mexico trip or send a separate detail to Haiti, although our excellent resource people in the United Methodist Church family are not telling us yet when people going there will be as valuable as our money going there first. That will be the primary question we ask.

Two things to remember: first, for all the existential angst about where God is when horrible things happen, something profoundly spiritual happens in our world when all of us know from our depths that we must get involved with others’ healing and recovery. When most of the nations of the world send Haiti relief, we must note the very hand of God in that act.

Second, the best disaster responses are coordinated ones, and the major agencies of world charity and non profit work are working that ballet as they do with most emergencies (though some organizations work with others better in different situations). Remember, the United Methodist Committee on Relief’s response focuses more on long term recovery. They were the very last relief agency to leave the area after the floods in the Chico/Yuba City that we went through in the mid ‘90s. They will send water and doctors and supplies to Haiti, but they will be there long after the immediate response is over, building buildings and lives.

This commitment to long term relief means UMCOR work goes on for years in some places (yes, they still solicit teams of volunteers for the area hit by hurricane Katrina, and Eureka UMC sends a team there each year even now). May God bless every relief agency and team member, and all the survivors in Haiti. And may we as United Methodists take our role in that blessing by committing to remember the people there for years, not weeks.

SOMETHING BETTER THAN OPTIMISM

Are pessimists disillusioned optimists? Are optimists just people who haven’t been through a critical mass of pain? Is there a better and more realistic approach to life than either one of these?

While studies seem to indicate that optimists have the better time with life, and I would in most senses recommend that point of view, optimism can be rooted in facts that can change. Disappointments can devastate the optimist, sometimes more than is tolerable. I suggest there is an even healthier perspective.

Beyond the optimist’s confidence that good will come and suffering and loss will decrease, and beyond the pessimist’s certain knowledge that the optimist is wrong, and that suffering and loss WILL increase, is a truer wisdom visible in the whole argument of Jewish and Christian scripture. Let me summarize it like this:

Pain and loss will always be with us, and
will increase with years and knowledge,
but life, even at its most wounded,
will always be sacred and beautiful.
We live in a love and grace
bigger than any pain we can ever know.

I have watched many saints transcend constant horrific suffering, receptive to God’s presence, appreciative, keenly aware and attuned to the sacred, transcending situations in a way that I can only term mystical. [I will write another time on finding communion with God’s pain at our suffering.]

In your new year, may you be blessed, healthy, relieved of much stress, financially stable, and satisfyingly engaged and happy! But may you grow deeply and vitally into the love of God that is, to quote the bible, “sufficient for you” in all situations. May you choose always to see God’s sacred presence in all those you meet and in every situation you find yourself in. God does not desire our pain or our suffering, but God is always here. Always. And where God is, there is beauty and mercy.

Do well in the new year.