PJ’s Page –
Recently, a friend of mine participated in a mock disaster drill at Sea-Tac Airport. The exercise simulated an airport related disaster. The actors were given roles to play, including how they were wounded and what their emotional and physical responses were to be. They were dressed with very realistic looking wounds via make up and costume special effects. At the end of the drill, there was a place for them to return those “wounds”; here’s the picture my friend posted to her Facebook Page.
If only it were this simple. If only we could take all that has wounded us and simply place them in a box, laying those particular burdens down.
It has been difficult for me this week not to consider the woundedness of the world. As wildfires devour everything in their paths, just over the mountains….as floods rage in the Midwest…..as storms churn off the coast…I consider the woundedness of Creation. Scripture says creation groans, and this is true. And we have played a part in this, that try as we might, we cannot shrink from.
The week also brings word of escalating wars and violence, in Israel and Palestine, in Syria, in Ukraine. Wars that claim the lives of many innocents, including 293 souls on a passenger plane. Wars that have their foundation, as most wars do, in our inability to see one another as beloved Children of God. Violence rooted deeply in hatred of the “other.”
Local news brings stories of lives lost in accidents and violence…of crime that rises like the summer temperatures.
Returning our collective woundedness seems to me to be a more difficult task than returning our personal wounds. Perhaps I am wrong about this. Maybe I am so overwhelmed by the shared societal wounds that I can’t see my way to the RETURN box.
Of course, this box sits at the feet of Jesus. Or maybe he’s holding it in his arms, patiently hoping that we remember his invitation to bring our heavy burdens to him…to come to him with our wounds and broken places and offer them to him.
I have recently started to “pray the news”….some days it is the only way I can bear to watch or read it. With every disaster, with every report of increased violence, with every accident or fire or drowning or attack, I offer prayers for those involved. I know this might sound overly pious or like it has the potential to be very longwinded, and I don’t want you to think that I am chanting formal prayers with every news report. Mostly I sit and pray “Lord, have mercy” over and over again.
This is also a good plan for our personal wounds, too. I recently heard it said that until we acknowledge the broken places in our lives…until we recognize that the wounded pieces of our hearts and spirit are pieces that God loves too, we will never fully return to wholeness. I’m still working on that, day by day.
Being part of this community of faith brings light and life to us all, whatever our wounds. Hearing the stories that shape us does the same thing. Singing the songs of our faith lifts us up. Sharing the peace of Christ binds us together. And prayer invites us to trust that the very One who created us and all that is stands ready and able to bear our shame, our brokenness, and carry our wounds.
Jesus said “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
May we trust that this invitation is true.