Managing through Crisis

It seems every day we wake up to new of more pain and suffering around the world. Earthquakes in Mexico; Wildfires in the West; Hurricanes one after another destroying South Texas and Lousiana, Florida and up the coast. Puerto Rico nearly destroyed and people in such need for basics - power, food, water, diapers, shelter. Then the shooting in Las Vegas that took way over 50 lives and left hundreds in the hospital with injuries.

What can we say? Where do we turn.

These words from John C. Dorhauer (General Minister our denomination, United Church of Christ) eloquently say what I feel. "I am fast losing the capacity to mourn all that we must mourn. Charlottesville becomes Houston becomes Florida becomes Puerto Rico becomes Las Vegas. Every lost life is a name, a history, a hope, a story - an unfulfilled future. Every lost life leaves behind loved ones who mourn and grieve and piece together a future of their own torn asunder by matters we cannot comprehend. I can't find words to capture this pain, this collective grief and anger. I cannot reach deep enough into my soul to express fully the pain, the anger, the rage, the confusion, the anxiety, the emptiness. When will it end? And what must I do, must I do, must I do to respond with meaning, with purpose, with intent so that whatever hope we talk about on the other side of this is not vapid and vain? I feel utterly powerless. God help us all. Inspire imagination. Inspire hope. Inspire healing. Inspire resistance. Inspire something new and something bold and something grand. This cannot be our ongoing narrative. We have to want something better than this. Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me."