Dignity Is Acceptable
Published in Blog Posts. Tags: Meditations.
Good Morning, this is the Meditation for Sunday, August 6, 2017. My name is Carl and I am being coached by Grace. It is the Grace of God that stands behind us, is to the right of us, to the left of us and opens doors before us. (If you are comfortable repeat that statement using your own name.)
Opening prayer: Good morning, God. It has been quite a night. As I stop and I listen to the silence I remember the battles during the night. Like Jacob of old, we/I wrestle. I show the effects of many battles but now I rest. Guide me, guide us in this time to learn of you, to celebrate you and to walk with you. Make this our prayer. Amen.
Prayer:
As I read the posts I pray for individual people and their concerns from skin issues to lungs and breathing, from joint pain to walking, from brain fog to concerns about the disease.
As I read the posts I read about broken relationships and family struggles, from job loss to money shortages, from losing one’s home to moving from spot to spot to survive. Lord hear our prayer.
As I read the posts I read that you seem distant and far away, you seem to be nonexistent to many. Lord remove whatever existing barriers there are to clearing the way to your working.
Lord hear our prayer. Amen.
Music (please choose music consistent with the Scripture reading from today):
“Love Divine, All Love Excelling”
Meditation::
Where is your brain at? A friend said recently, “you are in your brain, aren’t you?”
It is not something I had consciously done. My response, my hip and back are hurting again, I said. A while ago I had gone to the doctor and asked for a cortisone shot. He refused me. I knew it would be a matter of time before I would be incapacitated by the pain. Someone in his (the doctor’s) system had sent me a letter asking me to evaluate this doctor. I chose to wait. I will write someday. In the meantime I will go in search of yet another service. Living 20 minutes from hospital care doesn’t guarantee hospital care.
Each time I read the story of Jacob my mind wanders to unnecessary pain.
A man in the night came, wrestled with Jacob, put his hip out and then Jacob resigned himself to this as some form of wrestling with God.
The prayer of the Psalmist comes as a cry for vindication. What happens to a person when the support system around them collapses? Jacob found himself wrestling with a stranger. Many have wrestled with who this stranger was. Some say an angel, Jacob said it was God. Jacob said he prevailed yet he is remembered for his limp.
The Psalmist says, test my heart, look at my steps, I will be found faithful, I will remain faithful.
Today, as I contemplate these words, I think of my own walk. This wrestling with sarcoidosis has become my third career. The last 16 years have been an experience of rekindling the years of struggle. My first career was in the church. I had a wonderful experience as long as I ignored the pressures from the outside. If I could have been just a pastor, but that wasn’t the case. In each church setting unbelievable pressures from the outside came. Politics took its toll. Eventually I found myself in the community. There again as long as I was in the program/project wonderful things were happening. Then politics got involved. Politics. What role does politics have to do with anything?
In my worlds I have discovered politics have become the way one culture either works with or dominates another culture. Jacob was to become Israel. The sons of Jacob were to become multiple nations of people. The brokenness of Jacob carried over.
I went to a doctor. I was told in that system do what you are told. What does it mean to wrestle with multiple levels of brokenness? The body is broken. The medical system is broken. My next thought scared me. A random thought hit me… hope is broken!
The prophet Isaiah is known to many as the prophet of hope. The text certainly supports that view. He leaves us with the understanding that we can turn to God. My ultimate experience leaves me with the same understanding. I can turn to God. In fact after all else was tried there were no other options. The arrogance of the man who wrestled with Jacob. The politicians fighting for their own agenda. The medical system now imposing its so-called “bottom line” ideology all strip us of our dignity.
The story told about Jesus encourages us to understand their can be dignity in this life of ours. For Jesus it was simply to take what you have, then share it as you can. Amen.
Closing Thought: “I’ll Fly Away”