The World Wonders

 "The world wonders when it sees a person who can unexpectedly draw large and unsuspected sums from the bank for some emergency.  But what the world has not seen are the countless small sums paid into that bank, earned by faithful work over a long time.  And so is the bank of the spirit.  The world sees the person of faith make a demand of God's stores of power and the demand is met.  The world does not see what that person has been putting in, in thanks and praise, in prayer and communion, in small good deeds done faithfully, steadily over the years."

I wondered a bit during my Quiet Time this morning, as I was dutifully repeating my small list of affirmations and prayers, what the benefit was.  I have been trying to pay attention to what I'm saying.  Often with daily affirmations I find myself saying the words and not really digging into the meaning.  My gratitude list, for example.  But I've come to believe that repeating these things day in and day out makes me more grateful.  I'm not sure how it works but - even when I'm barely paying attention to what I'm saying - I believe it makes me more grateful.

Fake it 'till you make it.

I continue to wonder about how things will shake out as most of us re-emerge from a year plus of life underground.  I bet that it's going to look a lot different from here on out.  Talk about change - life ground to a screeching halt 15 months ago and now it's starting up again, fitfully and with some growing pains.  It's going to be interesting.   I'm wondering about that not insignificant group of people who hated the change and fought it tooth and nail from the git-go.  Frankly, I'm looking at these folks with a jaundiced eye.  I understand the attraction at keeping everything exactly the way it has always been - it's comforting when things don't change and it's comforting to be in control.  But now?  Meh, I'm not too impressed with many of them and I'm struggling with how to deal with them going forward.  I have tried disengaging from some of my regular routines because the thought of running into some of these folks is just too painful.  When I do I feel as if I'm walking on eggshells, afraid that something about masks or vaccines or the government is going to come up and it's not always that I disagree with them or at least that I can understand where they're coming from but that I simply don't want to have these conversations: they feel confrontational, simmering.  Pre-CoVid members of Alcoholics Anonymous were pretty good at keeping this information to themselves - there were plenty of people who I suspected looked at social, moral, and religious matters differently than me and sometimes in ways that I found offensive but we kept this stuff on the shelf  - but now?  Dunno.  I've always believed that one of our great strengths has been the intermingling of so many different worldviews.  I have had plenty of friends who would have been on the other side of the protest barriers and I'm not sure now I'm going to be able to interact with them in the future.

I find this pretty tragic.  I hope I'm wrong.