Dear Inner Circle,
Last week we held a funeral for a much loved member of our community. For me, it was a particularly difficult one. Regularly through the service there were long pauses, because quite simply, words failed. Sometimes that is the most appropriate response.
When we say that we don’t fix people, we aren’t absolving ourselves of responsibility. We mean that we are emptying ourselves of any sense that we are above, or more than — much like the plover who builds her nest on the ground. We choose that ground. It’s where love is found.
From the height and safety of a tree, there’s an abundance of words available to describe what is seen — a certain power over it all, and words spoken from an abstraction often become weapons.
On the ground is where the truth is often uncovered, it’s where the words often end and the tears often flow. Because love draws people together, closer across the bridges of divides that power can’t manage. If we claim any power here, it is in proximity to the pain of this world.
However, it is that same pain that carves out the room for joy. I’d love to tell you I arrived at this insight through years of theological reflection. Mostly I arrived at it because once a plover charged me on the way to the chapel and I was not dignified in response. Just when I thought I’d gotten away with an anonymous display of histrionics, a voice from the park bench laughed, ‘It must be because she loves you.’ Maybe that’s the whole theology. The pain gets you low enough to the ground that joy knows where to find you, but let’s be honest, it probably isn’t that simple.
Thanks for being a part of our Inner Circle,
Jon
Rev. Jon Owen
CEO & Pastor
Wayside Chapel
