Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent
I hear the whisperings of many: “Terror on every side! Denounce! let us denounce him!” Jeremiah 20
Jesus said, “is it not written in your law, ‘I have said, You are gods’? John 10
We’re in another time of “terror” pronouncements but they’re a lot louder than whispers. The constant sky-is-falling anger is wearing.
Last evening I asked my class how many had been going through chaotic times these past two weeks, and everyone in the room shot up their hand, some both hands! And I reminded them, in here you are safe. In here, everything is okay at the moment, so just breathe.
There were several under-prepared students last evening, but they made it through. They even had some lively conversations and a few laughs. And for that three hours, they were safe.
There’s no doubt that the constant barrage of terror on every side is weary-producing. And along with the loudly heralded news stories, cars, computers, and bodies are suffering.
The passage above from John is a reinterpretation of Psalm 82 which Jesus spoke to people ready to stone him. They said he was blaspheming for making himself out to be equal with God. “You are all gods. You are children of the Most High” Jesus reminds the crowd.
You are all gods.
In another gospel, Jesus says another familiar line, “The kingdom of God is within.”
How are you, how are we, exhibiting that god nature, that god kingdom within?
If there’s an all around constant in our lives, beyond the news stories or the chaos or the despair or even the laughter, or perhaps one could say the constant that includes all the other constants, it would be that god nature in each of us.
That’s the nature that forgives, that loves, that holds us safe even in the most chaotic times. I expect most of us would do well to remember that today. We are love, we are forgiveness, we are peace, and we are safe.
If you have some time today, write down all the ways you are safe today, right now. Not tomorrow or yesterday or some unknown time in the future, but right now. And if you don’t have the time, hold the image of safety in your breath, in all your actions today.
Someone else may not read this reflection. Someone else may need your god nature to offer safety in the simple acts of kindness you can give.
Have a god day.
janetsunderland.com 
Here is the classic “Janet” at work in my world.
Someone else may need my random act of kindness today: an unsolicited smile or the better parking place at the post office. For today, I will agree to make a patient phone call/email to listen and let the grime-and-gripe of the day just fall out of their mouth and fly off like so many crows at sunset. A lot of noise for a moment, then the beauty of peacefulness in silence.
Thank you! I needed to hear this today.