The Great Healing

Dear Inner Circle,

Together the world’s population recently crossed the eight billion mark, and it would serve us well to take a moment of pause to contemplate that there are currently more people alive on the face of the earth than have existed in the whole span of human history. Just let that sink in for a moment. Not as a moment of despair, but rather as one of hope. Right now in our world, we have enough beauty and potential to heal this planet and help us live in harmony with each other.

On Sunday we had a christening and welcomed two little precious members into our family of humanity. We took a moment to bear witness to a miracle – because of them the world has changed and will never be the same again. Their parents were reminded that the universe charged them not with ownership, but a gift, for all but a fleeting and beautiful moment on this earth.

People come to us on Christmas Day, hungry for more than the beautiful meal with all the trimmings. They come to us in despair, famished for love, for connection and some company – they too have the potential to change the world, theirs too is a life that has been gifted to us the family of humanity, as is our own.

It would be too simplistic to say that every day is Christmas, because the day itself is so deeply infused with memory, which for many serves as a marker of loss. In last week’s Inner Circle, I spoke about my dear friend Josh, who Wayside helped through the darkest time of his life after he lost his father, and lost his way. I reckon he got it right when he wrote this poem, which to me is a roadmap for how we can be a part of the great healing required of us and our world:

If you love love, you should love love

Cause I love love

And if you love love, we’d all love love

And if we all love love, we’d all live love

And if we all lived love, you would definitely love love

You’ll never see us “feeding the homeless on Christmas,” we are celebrating with them and living out the wisdom of Indigenous Elder Aunty Lila Watson who challenged us all with the wisdom of her community, “if you have come to save me you are wasting your time, but if you have come here because your liberation is tied up with mine, then come, let us walk together.” Now with nearly half of us experiencing loneliness and feelings of exclusion, and over a quarter of us having no one we can talk to, the invitation is issued to you, come, join us and let’s party together!

Thank you for being part of this wonderful Inner Circle.

Rev. Jon Owen
CEO & Pastor
Wayside Chapel

P.S. If you haven’t had a chance yet, please donate to our Christmas appeal. Your support will mean we can walk together with people like Josh when they need us most.