SEEK SOMEHOW...SOMEONE...TO SERVE

We must all overcome the illusion of separateness. It is the primary task of religion to communicate not worthiness but union, to reconnect people to their original identity.... God’s job description is to draw us back into primal and intimate relationship. -- Fr Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditation," November 13, 2020

I noted We must all overcome the illusion of separateness, and my "yes, but..." started churning, lining up commonsense resistance: 

This year has felt to me like a tutorial in separateness...beginning with The Pandemic at the first of the year. Since March, three beloved friends I mentored have passed (one completely unexpectedly), another dear friend has been diagnosed with Covid19 with no end in sight, one has been diagnosed with "dementia because we don't want to call it Alzheimer's," and yet another with Lewy Body Dementia. I got a wonky EKG in August, and my beloved Ruckus went back to Heaven in 2018 which, being the day before yesterday, is still this year. And, of course, over all: The Pandemic.

These are the times that try our reasoning mind. For which we need give praise, or a simple thank you, for these trying times leave us answerless...the very void that invites God to fill. How else do we break from our own mental fix-it but by no answer a'tall? 

If nothing turns us to God faster than fear, then answerless is our ticket to ride, our answered prayer. We have no thought to think, no mental gadget to distract us, nothing, nada, zilch, zip, zero. We beginners cry "Help!" Which is the short form of thank you.

We could stay with "Help!" only it holds us to our self-centered panic...thank you calms, soothes, is assurance that God has our back. It is thank you that informs us our ordeal has already been handled...we're good to go.  

Here's the secret: "Help!" is all about getting; thank you is all about giving. Neither is wrong, it's that "getting" is about me with no new growth required, and "giving" is about Thee which is new growth. 

Question not our year of seeming travail, pray thank you, be comforted and seek somehow to serve. 

Thank you.