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“Faith is homesickness. Faith is a lump in the throat.”
Frederick Buechner
“Once a reporter asked A.J. Muste, “Do you really think you are going to change the policies of this country by standing out here alone at night in front of the White House with a candle?” Muste replied softly: “Oh I don’t do this to change the country. I do this so the country won’t change me.”
How do we renew our faith
when so much is falling apart?
In these fragile days,
we, who assess life through “the fire of reason,”
find so little reason to trust
that everything’s going to be ok.
The climate is collapsing.
Racism so often morphs more than it is removed.
Politics divide more than they unite.
Don’t tell us it’s slowly getting better.
Don’t ask us to deny this feeling of despair that feels so real.
On so many days, we have lost our hope for a better day.
But we do long for it!
Don’t we?
Despite the setbacks and slowness,
there remains something inside that continues to say,
“It can be better!”
“More is possible!”
“I need to believe that goodness is real.”
It’s a longing that lingers no matter what.
Maybe that’s what the preacher meant
when he spoke of faith
as a hunger for home.
Maybe faith is more about remembering
our longing for what we love and who we want to be,
more than it is an act of restoring our trust
that everything will work out well.
Maybe the peacenik was right:
We must remain faithful to the fight
not because change is guaranteed
but to ensure that we are not changed.