Thursday, December 27, 2012

Life is Risky: An Homage to the Holy Innocents


Life is Risky

For the ill, a handshake with the wrong person can be life-threatening.

For the frightened, even eye contact can be too much to dare.

For the lonely, outreach to others is fraught with possibilities of rejection.

For those whose body chemistries are askew, even the next step is uncertain.

Life is risky.

The well become ill.

The brave become frightened.

The social become isolated.

The mentally stable lose their footing.

It happens every second of every minute of every day.

It happens that those
who ground their footing
on the sameness of things
will be surprised and not pleasantly.

You’d think it’d make us more aware –
and more kind.

There but for the grace of God go I
being more about irony than
providence,

for surely there we all go –
there into the uncertainty
of future
where the only foothold
we have, as it turns out,
is on the hand of God

who promises nothing certain
in earthly terms we can cling to

no good health
no general welfare
no surefootedness
no bravery
no virtue

only God

that is my takeaway
from Job – not the
restoration – for even
restorations are but
temporary things –
the Lazarus’ of the world
being with us still
only for a time

no – my Job takeaway
is the reminder that
God is both the promise
and the promiser –

the object as well as
the subject

of everything

I am but a footnote

and I am okay with that.

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