Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Morning Meditation - I am blessed


I woke up this morning grieving for the loss of my UU congregation and wondering how people can be so stupid as to take action which is against their own self interest, and detrimental to their own future?

I know, I know, I can hear people say, "that is a very arrogant stand to think he knows what is best". Maybe, I don't know what's best and so I think my thoughts very humbly, but my gut tells me that what they did was wrong, and they are too ignorant or narcissistic to know how to get themselves out of the predicament they have created.

And so I grieve for my former congregation and for the UU movement in general which has so much potential, and so much to offer the world, and can't seem to organize itself to actualize its potential. The UUA presidential campaign reminds me of two nerds running for Student Council president in high school.

I have read Robin Edgar's poignant posts about the lack of acknowledgement of his pain due to what he believes is ministerial malfeasance and the UUA's inept response.

Human beings are imperfect and our institutions, including the church, are broken. If the cradle of Western Civilization and the center of Christendom can kill 6 million Jews in a Holocaust, if the United States can kill millions in two immoral unnecessary wars like Viet Nam and Iraq, it makes a sane person wonder about what the hope is for human kind.

Rebecca Ann Parker says,

"I believe that we must doubt our doubt that there is grace. We must open ourselves to the possibility that there are sources beyond ourselves that sustain us, transform us, save us, that hold us tight in the arms of life. I believe that we must open ourselves to the possibility that this grace is already here, that it has been given, is being given, and will be given."

Blessing The World, p.111

And yet I am touched by grace, ever so lightly, it is easy to not notice, but it is there, and God is very good to me and to my family and to my community and to my country and to my world and I am blessed by the vision and values of Unitarian Universalism.

And so I try to look pass the pain and the sorrow, the frustration and disappointment, the discouragement and grief, and remind myself that God provides possibilities and that today is a new day and that in the end when it all comes out in the wash, I am blessed.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Kari:

    I am futher blessed by your "Amen".

    Thanks and all the best,

    David Markham

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  2. Here's another Amen for you then David.

    Amen is one of my favorite Egyptian gods. I am ever so impressed by how he managed to subversively insinuate himself into quite literally being "the last word" in most Christian prayers! :-)

    Thanks for bringing up my situation again. I too wonder how people in general and U*Us in particular can be so stupid as to take action which is against their own self interest, and detrimental to their own future. In fact I don't think U*Us have any idea just how detrimental to their future their actions against me potentially are. Forget your gut feeling David, good old Unitarian capital 'R' Reason tells me that what U*Us did was wrong, and that they are too willfully ignorant or indeed narcissistic to know how to get themselves out of the predicament they have created. Well actually these U*Us do know how to get out of it but are to narcissistic to do the proverbial right thing. . .

    U*Us often accuse me of being narcissistic because I stand up for myself and refuse to take crap from them but if totally ignoring a protestor standing right outside your church for a decade is not narcissistic I don't know what is. . . So thanks for presenting *that* diagnosis of the narcissism of the U*Us. I have been meaning to do so myself for some time now, in response to some U*U accusations or insinuations that I am narcissistic, but it obviously carries more clout when a psychotherapist makes that observation. There is little doubt in my mind that the UUA as a "corporate person", to say nothing of some individual U*U "churches" as "corporate persons" display a good number of the symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder not the least of them being a complete dearth of empathy for people who they have harmed in one way or another. . .

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  3. Come to think of it perhaps you should have titled this Morning Meditation post Morning Medication! ;-)

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